Final Session 14 (9/24/2021)

 The Fallen Ladder

After her Atonment, Vesper met with Penny Escher of the Artificer's guild. They had discovered another Shelter beyond an area called the Fallen Ladder in the underdark. Wan would take them into a radioactive zone so they could explore that shelter. 

The party went down to Gambuldar- the dwarven city, where they met Malgoth Fossilmover, who believed the radiation was a death aura caused by an artifact of Zon Kuthon.

The party travelled the fallen ladder and found mutated creatures inside. They uncovered a derelict train and saw that the fallen ladder was actually referring to train tracks. Wan repaired the train and went to the area called Station, which was inhabited by the descendants of ancient humans, mutated by their AI, Alexa, to survive the radiation.

They discovered that centuries ago an incident called "The Leak" happened, where Alexa's power cells began to leak radiation. This caused her to lose a great deal of functionality, and most of her systems were shut down. In order to repair it they would need an alternate power supply, either from Shelter, or from a floating city location called Orbit. 

They found that they could use Alexa's mutation equipment to protect them from radiation, but the mutations were harsh- Nantar went blind, Wan went deaf, and Kyrian grew a useless third arm. Vesper opted out.

On the end of the train line, Malgoth lay in wait with an ambush, many skeletons, zombies, a few ghast, some shadows, and an antipaladin cohort. Many of the undead were destroyed, but the radiation suts hindered Vesper and Aurelia's spellcasting, Pending was not around, so the party was destroyed by the undead forces in the radioactive tunnels of the Fallen Ladder..

Session 13 (9/17/21)

 The Amazons

The party was approached by Jaspar the unicorn. The migration of the Forest Giants in Ivy's Woods were disrupted for some reason, and his prophecy tells him that if the migration isn't repaired then the forest will be in grave danger. 

The party sought out Clawdia, chief of the Forest Giants. These giants were bigger than normal forest giants, 20-25 feet tall, and all female, many with a taste for humanoid flesh. She revealed that her tribe makes occasional migrations to breed with the males of the mountain giant clan- gargantuan giants 45 feet tall who have an insatiable taste for humanoids. The males children are sent back, while the females live here, safe from being dominated by the spores in Ivy's Forest. 

However, monsters have taken over the pass- medium sized spiders. The Amazons are terrified by the spiders and have been afraid to take the voyage. This puts them at risk, as if the social contact is not met, the Mountain Giants will come burn the woods to claim the women. 

The party went to fight the spiders. In the tunnels they met a Lampad named Terra who informed them that the spiders are aggressive because some humans went to a shrine nearby and defiled it.

The party headed to the shrine, which was a shrine of a long forgotten spider goddess. There they found that some Ragathiel paladins were turned into spiders when they destroyed the holy books in the shrine- and the spiders that were here became aggressive and went out into the nearby mountains.

The party considered finishing the job and destroying the altar, which would destroy the dark goddess' influence on the world, but were afraid of getting similarly cursed, so they reached out to Umbraella Arachnix, who came to the shrine and learned that the goddess was Lolth from another dimension. She freed the goddes and became her chosen. 

Umbraella pulled back the spiders to the shrine, solving the Giants problems, but refused to spare the Paladins, as they had done her goddess damage and must be punished. She also hinted that she might turn nearby mountain giants into gargantuan driders under her command.

She blessed the party with a succubus profane gift. However, Vesper and her cohort were weakened- this was a great evil they had done, and it violated their Good flaw. 

Session 12 (9/10/21)

 The Survivors (Continued)

After the incident with Shaking Spear, Pending decided to try to speak to Captain Grimes and Sparhaw and the Orc Prisoner. They saw they were being spied on, and the Orc handed Pending a silver shoe buckle he had found as evidence.  Pending informed Grimes that they had helped Shaking Spear avoid pursuit by guards and that she was killed by a reaper monster. 

While he was meeting with Sparhawk, Vesper was brought in for questioning by Grimes, who was able to figure out that Vesper helped Shaking Spear escape, but was unable to prove it. She said "I can't arrest you for abetting a criminal, but I can tell you to stop your meddling or I'll arrest you for interfering in an investigation."

Vesper told Grimes about the Reapers and Pending told Sparhawk. Both of them said they would concur with their experts to see if such a thing was possible.

Vesper decided to quit the mission because she didn't want to get in trouble. They met with Sylvia Moongazer of the mage's guild, who wanted help moving a powerful sorcerer across country while under magical protections so he could defect from a horrible war and get sheltered by a mage's guild. They met with Baru Coin to identify that the defector was a Pit Fiend, defecting from the Bloodwar. 

Before they could move the fiend, a Reaper came after Vesper, and they realized they had to go back to town and solve this crime. Nantar spoke with Sparhawk and they decided to go to the Mage's guild contact together to find out whether or not the reaper situation was viable. They were forced to fail the Defector mission and complete the Survivors. 

The mage's guild expert, George Tithonus, it turned out was the one summoning the reapers, and he attacked the party- and was almost able to defeat them, including summoning another reaper, when guards showed up, summoned by Sylvia (Vesper's familiar). 

Tithonus escaped, but they found a Greater Reaper bound in his basement, and found evidence that he was using the reaper to summon minor reapers to kill people in an agreement that he would provide victims, and in exchange, Death would avoid him and his family, giving the exceptionally long life. 

They were able to free Scarred Soul, the Orc Witch Doctor, and they freed the Greater Reaper, restoring balance between Life and Death. 

Session 11 8/27/2021

 The Recruits

The party was hired by the fighter's guild to located Harold Dannan who had gone missing along with his daughter, and his farm/keep had become a bandit camp. The party believed Harold to be dead.

The party investigated the keep and saw that there was indeed a bandit camp here made up of his own guards and many unemployed fighters from the fighter's guild. A half black dragon was trying to recruit them to join his army. 

The party came in and disbursed the bandits, and located Harold Dannan in his basement. He had located a centaur in the woods and forced her to take him home, but upon coming home found a bandit camp in his house. The centaur and him were taken prisoner, and they discovered that the centaur was channeling a succubus, who they forced to grant profane bonuses to them.

The party negotiated with Harold to forget the past and left him in charge of his estate- and the centaur.

The Survivors

Vesper was approached by Sparhawk who demanded to know why she was spreading rumors about him. The conversation was cut short with Constable Nobbs let him know that they found a serial killer who was killing a bunch of kids. 

They went to the watch house where a crowd was gathered. The watch wasn't letting anyone unauthorized in, but the rumors is they found an orc in the sewer doing magical rituals on dead bodies. Pending began a political process to become a lawyer on behalf of the orc, and the party began to investigate.

They learned that the Orc (Scarring Soul) was in the sewer and escaped the guards only to be attacked on the streets by the Minotaur. The guards found him before the Minotaur could finish the job and arrested him. In the sewer he was working with an unhallowed altar with various runes. The guards there also mentioned that they had not accounted for all the missing bodies. A mage's guild expert was brought in to interrogate the orc and investigate his possessions. 

Foul Ron mentioned that the girl Julie was taken by a reaper ghost several nights ago, and that it burned her body away. That night, Shaking Spear attempted to break Scarring Soul out of prison, but was unable, and the party helped her escape the guards. She said that Scarring Soul came here a few weeks ago to investigate a disturbance. As they were talking, a Reaper came for Scarring Soul. When Pending tried to intervene, it summoned another reaper to fight him. While Pending and team fought off his reaper, the original killed Shaking Spear, burning her entire body away, then it vanished. 

... To be continued. 

Session 10 8/20/21

 Djinni Unlamped

The party was approached by Albert Coin who had a special magical ring stolen from him. He was broke- he had no other money to offer them, but insisted the ring was important, and that "the priestess" said they could help him.

By pressing the issue they learned that the ring had an efreeti named Djinn bound to it, and it was stolen by a wizard who would be using its service to grant wishes. They also learned that Albert was in love with the efreeti and did not want the ring for making wishes.

The party used a familiar's feather to scry on the wizard and identify that he was far away in Osirius. They teleported there and battled the wizard, who had used 2 of his daily wishes already. They captured the ring and had Djinn take them back to Coin. He wanted to free Djinn but cold not- the ring required an Efreeti and only by killing him could he escape servitude- but Coin wished to take his place as the bound efreeti. After his wish was granted he proposed  to Djinn using the ring, and they went off to the realm of fire together.

Before they left, Albert and Djinn granted their last daily wishes to the party (5 total) in thanks for helping them find true love. 

Session 9 7/30/21

 The Shelter-

Penny Escher from the artificer's guild reached out to Pending, upset that he has stolen their plans for the mousetrap and costing them a several million GP contract. They demanded that his team go explore an ancient ruin with their researcher to discover lost secrets of the ancient world as payment.

The party agreed and met up with Wan Delver, a goblin gunslinger and grandson of Ivan Dogeater, thus a quarter elven. They came to an underground bunker where they found some damaged power supplies. Wan was able to repair it which restored energy to the facility, where an AI named Atropos was there to seal them in the compound. 

They explored the ruin and found it to be a high-tech living facility for ancient humans to live while the world was covered in radiation. Inside they discovered XI, a massage-robot, and Prometheus, an advanced prototype. They defeated the security and were able to disable Atropos and recover the data from the memory banks for the artificer's guild. 

Wan was very interested in Nantar, another adventuring goblin- insisting that there are too few of them, and that they need to stick together against the descrimination they find amongst "civilized" society. 

Session 8 7/23/21

The Syrum

The party was hired by the alchemist guild. An experimental mutagen was stolen. It increased the physical body of a person by granting them racial hit dice, but degraded their mental stats. The thieves Ruby and Flynn were hired by the Gnecromancer Xylophone Shadowbender. He was hiring laid off fighter's guild members to experiment on- enhancing them, then killing them and turning them into powerful zombies. 

The party tracked him down and defeated him, freeing many of the captured people and recovering the syrum. Once it was completed they were able to get a sampling of it.

The Damsel

Julietta summoned the party, having had dreams of true love kept apart. Katherine Dannan's father was keeping her locked in a tower so she could marry a Chelaxian Noble, which would be very lucrative for his tobacco and alchemy reagent farming. However, Julietta saw that Jaspar would be Katherine's true love.

The party broke into the keep and rescued Katherine to find that she was a seven year old half elf girl, and not interested at all in romance. They took her to Ivy's Forest to meet Jaspar but were pursued by her father and his guards, who set fire to the forest. The party met Jaspar, who was a unicorn, and had him get Arcus Woodsplitter, who was able to control the weather and put out the fire, and awaken Ivy's Tree so that it could move away from the fire. 

Jaspar revealed that Katherine was a chosen of Valaren and they would form an eternal bond as protectors of the forest- and that not all love was romantic or sexual. Jaspar blessed the party with the powers of the forest protectors.

Session 7 7/2/2021

 The Missing Dog

Urist Lighbender, Royal Magician to Rogar Hornbreaker has come to the party via the Mage's Guild contact. Rogar's favorite hunting dog, a dog with the advanced template, bred and enhanced by the alchemists guild, was stolen. Divinations indicate that it was stolen by the orc tribe outside the village. He worries if he tells Rogar, then the dwarves will march on the tribe and completely wipe them out. Seeking to avoid the bloodshed, he wants to see if the party can recover the dog.

The party went to Arkus, who wasn't aware of the dog, but some young ones were still out on their Mor-Zog Gog and haven't returned. Arkus led the party to Lynn's Lake, where the naiad Lynn would let them use the pool for scrying. They discovered that the boy Runs with Rivers was inside Ivy's Forest- an area dangerous to men, which is patrolled by the Qatgirl a dangerous lichenthrope.

The party tracked Runs with Rivers through the woods, to find he had taken Trapper as his animal companion during druid training, and that he was tracking Shaking Spear, a young orcish girl who he had dreams was captured by the Qatgirl. They party faced and defeated the Qatgirl and saved Shaking Spear.

The party negotiated with the Orcs to give away a direwolf pup to be trained as a hunting beast by Rogar and was able to negotiate trade with Rogar for Trapper, and thus avoided war and let the boy keep his dog.

Making a Man

Adam and Steve from the Fighter's Guild asked the party for help. A recruit, Eric, had been wounded during a patrol a month ago, and since then he's been very wary about engaging in combat, often letting his partners go forward and fight on his behalf. This has caused people to stop trusting him, and is jeopardizing his position in the guild. They wanted the party to capture a monster and sic it on Eric, forcing him to fight it and get his courage back. 

After the party tried to come up with several plans which did not involve the mission, such as pretending to be bandits, Vesper attempted to hypnotize him in public, which failed and caused him to start reporting her for spell-assault. Pending came to speak with him, and during conversation realized that there was something more to his fear. They discovered that when he was wounded he contracted lycanthropy and he was afraid to enter combat for fear the wolf would come out. They reported his disease to the fighters guild for them to take care of.  

Session 6 (6/26/21)

 The Trolls' Egg

The party was summoned to the Druid Grove by Arkus Woodsplitter who told them that rare albino lake trolls were being attacked by black scaled kobolds. He didn't know what drove them towards their cave, but that the albino trolls were an endangered species that must be protected. He also warned that they were fiercely stupid, and would likely also be aggressive towards the party. The kobolds wore a strange holy symbol which the party did not investigate. 

The party went and fought off the kobolds, leaving the cave to the trolls. Returning to the grove they had a divinatory smoking, and saw that the trolls were guarding a bronze dragon egg that would soon hatch into a wyrmling. Arkus told them that dragons are the source of magic and that too few are born. They did a great thing for the magical environment by saving the egg from the kobolds who would have likely destroyed it.

A Captivating Masterpiece

Faunra, a high level bard from the college of art, wishes to create a captivating masterpiece by studying the songs of a harpy, a bog nixie, and a siren. All of them have the ability to sing a captivating song, which is more powerful than the fascination bardic performance. She hopes by studying them she can create a more powerful song herself.

She asked the party to obtain an unharmed harpy, siren, and bog nixie. The party consulted the druids on how they might succeed- the druids suggested nets. 

They found that a nest of harpies has been bothersome on the Nation of Holly, and that Thrain Horsemaster knows an area of sea where sirens tend to attack his sailors, and they learned from the druids about a bog nixie in a swamp. They went there and found a large pond, large enough to hold a huge creature. They went in and were attacked by a huge frog, who began to swallow pending. Vesper had deafened herself and made herself immune to the nixie's captivating song. They defeated the frog, but the nixie hid herself and they were unable to locate her. The party retreated back to town to come up with a new plan. 

Session 5 (6/4/21)

 Intro to the Fighter's Guild

The party was hired by Adam Oleander and his partner Steve to stop an inventor from the Artificer's Guild- Leonardo de Squiggle, from publishing his invention- a mouse trap device that would make early fighter's guild missions obsolete. 

The party attempted to discuss the invention with Leonardo, but he was very absent-minded and obsessed with inventing. They discovered that the Artificer's guild keeps him happy, fed, and taken care of, and in exchange they take his best inventions for themselves. Pending decided to take the invention, create his own blueprints for the device, and quickly go patent it himself to prevent the work from being readily available (without profiting the Fighter's Guild). 

Intro to the Mage's Guild

The party was hired by Sylvia, an elven diviner from the mage's guild, to help her associates complete a magic ritual. The ritual was one that the Church of Asmodeus would likely oppose, so they would run security. Baru Coin and Umbrealla Arachniz were running the ritual, which summoned Chilaxian contract devils in order to find loopholes and ways to break existing mage guild contracts.

The church tried to trick the party by sending an associate dressed as a Mage Guild member, but Pending had already asked about this specific scenario, and was not tricked. They were able to hold off the advance. The church wheeled up an invisible cannon, and managed to disrupt the ritual by breaking off part of the roof, but not demolishing it, so the ritual was able to be completed the next day. 

The Lyre off Liars

The party was hired by Lanliss Stringcoaxer who is building a collection of magical items created by the wild mage, Otis Illcrafter, known for creating magical items that did not serve their intended purpose- such as a potion of tongues that created an additional tongue, or the Rapier of Fencing which helped build fences. 

He was looking for the "Lyre of Liars" which was intended to assist with deceptions. The party went to a tomb where it was said to reside. There they found a recently abandoned camp. Inside, the tomb was mostly ransacked, and there was a tunnel leading to a natural cave. Inside the cave was a naked neried, who had her shawl stolen from her. They tracked down the thief, who was an undine gunslinger. He claims to have taken it because she tried to drown him, but as an undine he was able to survive. The party defeated him and returned the shawl. In return, the party gave the male members the ability to breathe water, and Vesper was crafter her own shawl, which did leave her vulnerable if the shawl was destroyed, but gave her the Unearthly Grace feature- adding charisma as a deflection bonus to AC. The party found the tomb of the paladin Chaucer, guarded by a golem, which they defeated. Upon finding the Lyre, they found it was an intelligent speaking item, not a Lyre OF Liars, but a Lyre OFF Liars, dedicated to destroying deceivers, and having powers to see through illusions and identify mistruths. They brought it back to Lanliss, who added it to the museum. 

Session 4 5/28/21

 The Hero's Tale

The party was hired by Jorm Stormgate in the College of Art, who was writing an epic ballad about the life of Alleah Babwa, a famous dwarven barbarian. Amongst her accomplishments is singlehandedly taking down a hundred mounted bandits, saving the king of Gambuldar from an assassination attempt, and defeating the necromancer Grizelda Deathwhisper. What she is most famous for is being a dwarven feminist- she was one of the first dwarven women to cast off her beard and wear revealing clothing, advertising her femininity in a way unheard of in dwarven culture- inspiring many other women to do the same.

Jorm has been carefully detailing her deeds, but he worries that she will outlive him, accomplishing great deeds he can never write about or- worse yet- retire and peter out like an untended campfire. He arranged for a rematch between her and Grizelda Deathwhisper by reconstructing her necromantic artifact and arranging a meeting between them for a final showdown- which he wanted the party to watch and report on. 

When the party got there, they realized that Grizelda was not an evil necromancer, but that she was possessed by the dark artifact that controlled her mind and used her to raise armies of undead. Alleah arrived and was heartbroken to see that the artifact was reconstructed. She began battling the undead and was brought to tears at the prospect of having to kill Grizelda- who was, in fact, her lover. 

The party intervened, and helped heal Alleah and climbed to the top of the temple to shatter the artifact, freeing its control on Grizelda. They convinced them of the importance of true love, and both of them faked their deaths- giving the College of Art a great story, whilst allowing them to run off incogneto and have a life together. 

Pending got himself added in as a co-researcher on the book, giving him extra credit at the College of Art. 

The Princess and the Frog

Julietta Rosen, hearing the tragic tale of forbidden love lost to time, approached the party. She is a separatist cleric of Naderi- the goddess of tragic suicides due to forbidden love- though she focuses on Naderi's original portfolio- being a patron to forbidden lovers. 

She had received a vision that two people were doomed to not be with their true loves: Zirule and Glenn- but were they to work together, they may find that they each have what the other needs to find true love in their lifetimes. 

She asked the party to facilitate this cooperation. Vesper, having a relationship with Zirule already, reached out to him.

Zirule had long been courting Missandei Emmanuel. However, she was a princess of a desert tribe, and her family would be pressuring her to marry royalty if possible. Zirule had a plan- he had heard of a ruined castle on a small swampy island that was overrun with swamp trolls. If he could get a group to help him clear it out, he could declare himself king of the new nation. That means Missandei would be queen if she marries him, and he would become a great suitor for her. 

Meanwhile, Glenn- a grippli knight, was in love with his princess and charge: Leene Guardania, an elf. He had long resigned to love her from afar, as many knights do with princesses, because her family would never allow the marriage- he is a short lived grippli, and she would require an elven royal. 

However, the noble Glenn believed in the cause of true love, and agreed to help Zirule gain his castle in the name of his own true love.

The party took a ship to the swamp island covered in swamp holly bushes, and began clearing out the trolls with Zirule and Glenn. The trolls called for help and a green hag appeared, disabling most of the party. She was about to kill Zirule when Glenn sneak attacked her and killed her- saving the day.

Zirule declared himself king of the Nation of Holly, and made Vesper, Pending, and Nantar lords and ladies. Glenn, for his exemplary service, he declared a blood brother, performing an ancient elven blood brother ritual- giving him a very small amount of elf blood, and making him a legal prince. 

Back home, at a tournament for Leene's hand, Glenn won, and declared his love for Leene- at Zirule's encouragement. When the family denied his request for not being an elven prince, Zirule publicly stood up for Glenn, arguing that as his adopted brother he is a prince, and as a person who has a tiny bit of elf blood, he can be legally considered an elf in law. Julietta started the crowd chanting in favor of Glenn, and King Janus Guardania blessed the union, allowing Glenn and Leene to marry. Missndei- moved by Zirule's actions to help the noble Glenn find true love, found herself fallen in love with Zirule, and accepted his proposal as well.

 

Session 3 (5/14/21)

Mission 3- Continued

The party continued towards Twoshirts. They got to a large chasm spanned by a sturdy bridge. They saw the people who stole the necklace crossing the bridge (towards them) on horseback. The people were spooked, and the party shot their horses to prevent them from escaping. 

The thief indicated that he sold the necklace to someone who lives in a hut outside Twoshirts and they were allowed to leave.

Arriving at Twoshirts they found the town deserted, houses were smashed in as if the place was attacked, but there were no bodies. They started following the tracks of the attackers and identified that they were most likely hill giants with a large wagon to haul away the people. 

At this point they decided to abandon following the tracks and search for the hut. That night they saw an mind-controlled hill giant walking through the woods and followed it. At one point it bypassed another mind controlled hill giant walking in the other direction.

They followed the giant to a witch's hut where she was wearing the necklace and casting dominate person on the hill giants. They waited an hour to see if she went to sleep, and Vesper snuck into her hut. Inside she saw that townsfolk were being drained of blood for some kind of ritual. She snuck past the crow familiar into the witch's room, where she was not asleep, but was projecting her eyes elsewhere. 

Unskilled in stealing, Vesper snatched the necklace and ran wildly out of the room. Kotkin distracted the hill giant and led it into the forest and hid from him, while Brody and Vesper fled the crow who was watching them and leading the witch to them. They attempted to lose the crow but Brody gave away their position. Realizing he couldn't escape, Brody led the crow and witch away from Vesper, getting captured so that Vesper could escape.

When Vesper regrouped with Kotkin, Kotkin devised a plan to go back to the witch and offer the return of the necklace in exchange for their lives. Vesper warned him that this plan was suicide, especially with his weakness to mind control, but he went anyway. Vesper went back to town to wait for them, but they never arrived. 

Vesper returned the necklace to Zirule, who was saddened to hear of the tragedy and gave an extra 1000 gp to try to make up for it- he had no idea it would be so much trouble. 

Session 2 (5/7/21)

 The Slave Girl

The party was hired by Thrain Horsemaster (a friend of Zirule's) to disrupt the buisness of a rival, Kazmut Charterer. Kazmut owns a shipping company that sometimes moves slaves, and he's had a run of bad luck- many of the slaves he's been sent to pick up have been freed before he got there. He is now trying to enter into a partnership with Walder Baelish of Cheliax in order to gain a more lucrative contract and stay above water. If the meeting can go south, Kamut's debts will come due and Thrain can purchase his ships at tremendous discount.

The party tried to enter Kazmut's estate and found themselves mysteriously back at the Pan Kowalski an hour later. They found that they had been mind wiped. Witnesses saw them leave the estate earlier as if in a daze. Suspicious that Kazmut had psionics or a psion on retainer, they did some research and found that sometimes Kazmut acted strangely, as if he himself had been manipulated at times. Michael paid for a memory modification to restore his lost memories, and remembered entering the estate and telling some slaves that he was there to rescue them. At that point, one of the slave girls had used a psionic suggestion on them to leave, and modified their memories as they left to maintain anonymity. 

Rather than confront her, the party spread the rumor that one of Kazmut's slaves was actually a psion in disguise and was manipulating him (which was true), ruining his reputation as someone who can control slaves and souring the deal with Walder

The watch came with Kazmut to remove the girl, who turned out to be an agent of the Bellflower network- she was undercover as a slave and using her powers to identify slave trade pickup areas, and was sending communication to her other agents so they could disrupt the pickup and free the slaves before delivery. She was arrested and send to a prison somewhere that could handle psionic prisoners.

Thrain was pleased and rewarded for their efforts.

Mission 2:

The party was hired by Zirule to recover an necklace he had purchased, which was pickpocked from him as he watched a street performer. He wants it returned so he can present it as a gift. The watch has been searching for weeks and has been unable to uncover it.

The party learned that a belly-dancing performer was distracting crowds so her accomplice could pickpocket them. The Thieves' Guild was also after them for unlicensed thievery. Vesper used a contact at the jewelry store to identify that the man had a Twoshirts accent- a mining town four days away. They left town.

They saw that they were being watched at a distance by a couple of orcs, but they were not bothered by them. The second day they saw a wounded bear guarding her cubs. Vesper healed her wound and the went on. That night, the orcs, impressed by her healing of the animal, led her to their camp, where they met the chief, Arcus Woodsplitter, who invited them to feast and drink with them, which the party did. Kotkin found himself drinking and being courted by Bonks With A Club- an ogerkin orc with a vestigal fetal head growing out of her neck. After a night of alcohol, he was able to be courted. Vesper and Brody went with the chief to smoke and go on a vision quest, where they astrally projected to a distant world where the sprit of nature was being hunted by local humanoids. Despite being incoporeal, Vesper was able to affect their magic net, and cut the net, allowing the spirit to escape. They earned the respect of Arkus and were named Friends of the Tribe. Arkus said he would watch the stars for signs, and may contact them again in the future. 

Session 1 (4/30/21)

Mission 1: The Date

 The group met up and found Laplace Johnson who introduced them to Zirule Liadon.

Zirule had arranged an upcoming date with Miessandei Emmanuel from Qadira, and he waned to make sure that the date went well, so he hired the party to attack them on their date, so he could fight them off and look good.

The party set up the attack. Little did they know Miessandei was able to defend herself, and she was an accomplished battle dancer. As confusion grew in the combat, the lights went off, as thieves guild members attempted to kidnap her. In the darkness and fog there was no visibility, but Kotkin got off a lucky shot and blasted a kidnapper, while Zirule stabbed another one, his bravery enhanced, thinking it was all part of the act. 

By the time the watch showed up, Miessandei had been saved, and it appeared that Zirue had driven off six attackers. He was very happy with the party's performance. 

Mission 2: The Package

Brody met with Dibbler, a contact with the Thieves' Guild, to try to get the party involved with the guild more. Dibbler wanted the party to retrieve a fragile package from a watch warehouse before Sparhawk, the paladin to whom the package belonged, could get it. Brody disguised himself as Sparhawk and was able to obtain the package, when they discovered that it contained a small cassian angel. They decided to free the angel rather than turn it in to Dibbler. As it left, it revealed itself as an imp, and Dibbler's familiar, who came in and told him all about it. Dibbler revealed that this mission was really a test to see if they could be trusted to complete a mission without being distracted by moral issues- one that the party was proud to have failed. Brody relinquished his affiliation with the Thieves Guild. 

The PCs

Michael Tuk

Human (F)

A friar of the Monastary of the Whispering Winds- a monastic order based on perfection of self. Wandered away from the party out of the blue, citing that she felt the call of her creator to focus on book learning. 

Brody O'Duff

Half-Elf (M)

An associate of the Thieve's Guild. Killed in action distracting a witch away from the rest of the party. 

Kotkin Davieth

Aasimar (M)

A soldier here to defend the city. He died attempting to negotiate for the return of Brody O'Duff from a powerful mind control witch. 

Lady Vesper Nightrune of the Nation of Holly

Aasimar (F)

A woman looking for her lost childhood friend. 

Lord Pending of the Nation of Holly

Tiefling (M)

A bard from the College of Art looking to expand his celebrity.

Lord Nantar of the Nation of Holly

Blue Goblin (M)

A blue goblin with an interest in human religions who focuses his psionic ability on healing others. 

Psionics

 

Psionics is, in many ways, the 3rd type of magic (besides divine and arcane). Unlike magic, which is based on the environment, psionics is comes mostly from within, from your own spirit. In many ways it's the same as magic, in a few ways its different:

How is it the Same:

Most things that detect magic detect psionics also. Same with dispel, spell resistance, etc. Spellcraft is used as "Psicraft" and knowledge arcana can identify certain psionic elements. 

To your average peasant it's the same as magic (especially like spell like abilities that don't have components), so anyone who doesn't trust magic (like certain barbarian archtypes) would also distruct psionics. Most feats that affect spellcasters or casting defensively are equally usable against psions. 

How is it Different:

While there have been wild magic zones, psionics has been mostly unaffected. Likewise some magic dead zones may not affect psionics (though there may be separate psionic dead zones or areas where both are inhibited). 

While there is a huge mage's guild, which studies the "science" of magic, psionics are based more on the internal mind and spirit, and is harder to teach. As such, there are fewer guilds and schools that focus on it. True, there are psions in the mage's guild, and there are some that study at monasteries, but socially it is hard to teach in a classroom setting, so psions are still more rare.  

Thematically, divine magic comes from the gods. Arcane magic comes from the world (though having certain bloodlines may help you access the magic more easily). Psionics comes from the self. Divine magic can go anywhere your divine source is recognized (so certain alternate primes could suffer from a lack of faith in a god). Arcane magic can go anywhere that magical energy exists (so certain worlds may not have magic at all). Psionics can go anywhere you can go. 

While a psion can be mythic, there aren't as many mythic abilities that compliment a psion as there is a mage, and there doesn't appear to be mythic versions of psionic powers, so there's a negative. 

For creating magical items, psions create psionic items and spellcasters make magic items. 

Notable NPCs

 

Laplace Johnson

Any runner who knows anything knows about Laplace Johnson. Mr. Johnson seems to know things- that's his job. One of the big things he knows is people- and how to help people find other people. One of the other thinks most people know about Mr. Johnson is how much he DOESN'T know. He might introduce an "adventurer" to someone who "needs something done", and afterwards he seems to know nothing about it. This strange ability to know exactly where to find people, except when nosy people are asking questions, makes him quite a valuable ally. 

Bellis Zoophile

Anyone looking for Honest Work could do worse then Bellis Zoophile. She runs one of the most impressive zoos in the nation, with various strange animals and beasts, as well as a large museum called the "Companion Menagerie" with rare figurines. Supposedly each figurine is a petrified beast. She calls them her children, and she's always willing to pay top dollar for a new adoption. 

Foul John

It's a rare beggar who becomes somewhat of a minor celebrity. This guy is a beggar by trade- and he's proud of it. He's turned up opportunities to move up in the world, and he refuses to ally himself with the nefarious sorts who find him useful, as well as the lawful sorts who find him useful. Some say he's insane, others say he's brilliant. One thing we can all agree on though, is that he's a good place to go if you're desperate for information. I say desperate, because few people can stand the stench, or stomach the way he picks at his diseased boils when he speaks. And of course when he sneezes one gets the urge to get a remove disease done in a hurry. But still, there's very little that escapes his detection.

Lady Angelica Daedelus

There are the merchants, then the nobles, then the very rich. And then there's Lady Daedelus (or Lady Dee Dee to her friends). She hosts the most elegant parties and despite not being affiliated with any guild, has hosted city officials as well as guild leaders. Rumor has it that for some reason, thieves refuse to do any job related to her or her property. Is she affiliated with the mysterious Thieves Guild, or is her house so well protected that no one dares break in? Or is it that she has the means to get revenge on anyone who's wronged her? All we know for sure is that her family has various business interests outside of Druma that keep plenty of cash flowing in. 

Rogar Hornbreaker

Governor of Garn is Rogar Hornbreaker. While most Druma cities are protected by the Blackjackets, Garn is far enough away from the capital and has too much guild influence for him to keep as tight a grip on things like you'd see in other cities like Kerse. Despite the higher crime, and his apparent inability to keep the guilds in line, the High Prophet Kelldor has made no signs that Rogar is to be replaced. Perhaps he's found some kind of delicate balance that allows him to make enough profit to secure his position, or maybe he's found some way of keeping secrets from the capital. What we do know is that most people who have a meeting with Rogar leave that meeting happy- happy that they were allowed to leave the meeting. As far as what they were meeting with him regarding, they often seem to forget what they were demanding and are happy just to be going about their business. Rumor has it that no guild leader likes Rogar, but that they all fear that any alternative would be worse for them. 

Julietta Rosen

A cleric of Naderi and the leader of the Naderi Player's acting troupe. Julietta puts out tragic plays of love lost, usually ending with the suicide of the lovers who society kept apart. Her plays are quite popular, and usually end with some kind of poem about the power of love and encouragement for people to find acceptance for all kinds of love. 

The Minotaur

Rumors have begun surfacing of a strange vigilante known as "The Minotaur". A sprawling city's streets can easily look like a maze to foreigners, and the Minotaur knows the streets like none other. Some criminals have been found gored, or chopped up brutally with an axe. Sometimes there are witnesses, but accounts are foggy. All we know is that the minotaur seems to only target people in the act of committing a crime- innocents seem to have been left alone during Minotaur sightings. Despite the minotaur helping to clean up the streets, the watch have issued a bounty for his capture. 

Captain Belmarnis Grimes

Captain of the City Watch is Belmarnis Grimes is a runners worst nightmare. While the watch may not have the numbers of the fighter's guild, or authority to enter some guild property for investigations, she knows that criminals have to use her city streets to get from place to place, and she is happy to capture criminals and bring them to justice. She has a major grudge against the guilds, especially since she knows that they (from time to time) are known to hire disreputable sorts to get things done. It's said that the Assassin's guild has stopped taking contracts for her after some unfortunate accidents that resulted in missing assassins. She may be a watch captain, but don't expect much quarter. The law grants her a great deal of discretion in regards to use of force, and she's not foolish enough to yell "Halt!" when a bullet to the leg will get the same thing done. 

The Guilds

 Nowadays there are guilds for just about everything. A farmer's guild, a carpenter's guild- and you can bet the guilds will come down hard on those who perform a trade without a license. There are plenty of organizations you can go work for. 

You get bigger than the guilds, and you get the governments- the city watch, local royalty. They make the laws, and they have the armies. 

Then you have the big guilds. The AAA guilds. These guilds have branches in every country, every major city (and a few minors ones!). They have membership to rival some nations, and some have coinage to match the most wealthy kings!

And these guys defend their lands! Sure they got to follow local laws, but it's hard for your regular badge to show up in the Mage's Guild and demand to look around. If he gets back out at all he might be a newt, or a turnip. Best case is he just comes out with no memory of the incident. 

The Mage's Guild

Might as well start at the top, huh? These guys have dedicated themselves to unravelling the secrets of the universe, and not everyone wants to see what's behind THAT curtain. They have such a monopoly on magical materials they basically set the prices (which is handy when you need an onyx worth a specific amount!) Inside the mage's guild is various factions based on certain school specialties, such as the Conjurers or  the Illusionists. With all this power, you'd think they'd run the world, but once you've unlocked the multiverse, ruling one dimension hardly seems worth the trouble. 

While your everyday muggle doesn't necessarily trust the mage's guild- and rightly so- last thing you need is a stray demon appearing in your backyard! Then again, it's nice to know you got a bunch of guys who can launch siege style artillery if the orcs decide to attack!

The Merchant's Guild

Give me control of a nation's money supply and I care not who makes its laws. The Merchant's guild sums that up. Barely a union or labor guild exists that doesn't pay some form of taxes to the merchant's guild. Their coffers are deep, and they finance many a new business- if they feel it's worth their while. If there's one thing they care about it's maintaining profitability. While the adventurers plunder an ancient tomb worth thousands of gold, they're content to take a small piece out of every grain of rice, every sword, and every tunic made. Turns out, that's the more lucrative business.

The Pantheon

What holds more power than any church in Golarion? All the churches combined! Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of in-fighting amongst the different religions, but that's out in the country where they're sacrificing virgins to devils. Here in the city, the Pantheon keeps the peace- they've discovered that if they work together in big cities, they can set prices for healing services and rake in the money. All those temples, candles, and oils have to get paid for somewhere, and it's odd what a church of Asmodeus down the street does for the church of Erastil! Both seem to magically have more attendance (and tithes) than either would have if they were the only game in town! And here we have the pantheon- the agreement between churches to gather money in small towns, and kill each other out in the countryside. 

The Alchemists Guild

It's not magic, it's alchemy! While the churches focus on magical healing (for the faithful- or rich- only of course) someone has to be out there making plain old antiplagues for the peasants. And a mage might be able to lob a fireball at a horde of charging goblins, but ANYONE can throw an alchemists' fire! With magic dead zones in some areas of the world, and strange wild magic zones popping up, some good old fashioned alchemy can be just the ticket for someone who wants consistency!

The Artificer's Guild

Headquartered in Numeria, this guild is about finding the ancient lost technology and capitalizing on it. Whether it's supplying gunslingers, or trying to clean up radiation links, these guys have become mysteriously right. What have they discovered from the ancient civilizations that they haven't shared? I guess it doesn't matter- as long as they keep supplying the flintlocks! 

The College of Art

Also known as the "Bard's College" this is a multi-national university dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, culture, and art. They seek to categorize the history of the world, create masterpieces, and put on plays for both commons and nobles. Perform is the most profitable of the labor skills, and these guys know it! It doesn't hurt that archeological digs tend to turn up as much treasure as they do historical research! While the mage's guild studies magic and the churches teach the gods, these guys learn about everything else there is to know. And as they say, knowledge is power! What lengths do they go to in order to obtain that knowledge?

The Thieves Guild

Ever see this symbol painted somewhere? It's the mark of The Hand. Maybe it's like the watch says- that this is just an urban legend that vandals are propagating as a joke. But then, it's all over the world. The very concept of a thief's guild seems counter-intuitive at first. A group of scoundrels that cant be trusted and are after stealing things? But then, stolen things need to be sold, someone's crafting lock pics- and it's not all locksmiths, and someone's passing on the skills to the next generation. They say "The Hand" is the name of the master thief that got everyone together. Of course, it's all just rumors. 

The Assassin's Guild

While some thing it's silly to say there's a thieves guild, everyone seems to agree that there's a shadowy organization that supports killers for hire. It makes sense. People want to get rid of other people, and there's a definite need for skilled workers to meet that need. And unlike the thieves- who are most successful if they are never discovered, the assassins regularly leave calling cards so everyone knows that this was a hit job. Some people report seeing bodies dried up and shriveled, as if the very soul of the target was taken away. But in a world with resurrection, if you want something done permanently, I guess you need it done right! Not to say that there aren't plenty of killers out there that aren't aligned with a guild- but if you've got the money, you might want to pay extra for quality.