Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 25

 [Day 49 – Skirmish with the Unknown Mage explodes.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened June 28, 2021.]

[SPOILERS!  If you are likely to adventure through the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, this campaign will be spoilers all the way down.]

Player Characters

Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 6th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Roscuro – male ratfolk 6th level Monk

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Marativy – female ratfolk 6th level Ninja

Winston – male ratfolk 6th level Gunslinger

Via Roll20

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 6th level Summoner (Synthesist)

Autumn

Day 49

Round 6 of the combat!

The unknown mage was no longer in view, the Ratpack were fairly certain that the two images of him to the south were illusion.  Marativy started running the rooves of the buildings to get to the images and verify that was what they were.  Zitch actively looked around for some sign of the unknown mage.  Templeton waited for the unknown mage to do something and Winston climbed onto Templeton’s back to ride against the mage with Templeton.  Swamprover swung down into the building the mage had been on top of and started searching.  Roscuro followed so they could search faster.

The unknown mage cast a spell on Winton, but this would not be noticeable until too late.  Marativy leapt across a street, landing next to one of the images on an adjacent building.  She swung on it and it immediately dispersed.  Zitch flew nearer to Marativy and healed the damage she had taken earlier in the fight with a Healing Hex.  Winston, dominated by the mage, turned while sitting on Templeton’s back and rapid fired his musket at Zitch, catching Zitch by surprise and shot him repeatedly [one of the hits was a critical success].  Templeton, alarmed at Winston’s actions, immediately grappled the gunslinger, but it was too late, the damage had been done.  Inside the building Swamprover and Roscuro heard the shots, but assumed that Winston was shooting at the mage, so they continued their search, hoping to find Frederick.  The found stairs down and up into the attic [they were on the third floor], which seemed promising.

While the unknown mage did something the adventurers could not see, Zitch bled out from his wounds and died.  [Zitch had a 15 Constitution and Winston’s attack took him to -14 hit points.  The roll to stabilize and not die has a -1 per point below 0, so the roll for Zitch had a -14, meaning that Zitch’s player had to roll a natural 20 to not bleed out.  He didn’t, not even getting close, so Zitch lost another hit point.  Having negative hit points equal to the character’s Constitution is when death happens and Zitch died.]  Marativy, realizing Zitch was dead, continued her search, hoping to find either the mage or Frederick.  Winston, with no orders, remained passive in Templeton’s grip.  Templeton called for help while keeping Winston pinned.  Swamprover, hearing Templeton, went to a nearby window and climbed back onto the roof, finding Templeton pinning Winston.  She called out for Roscuro to “get up here in a hurry,” so he did.  He asked Winston what had happened and Winston, in an eerily calm voice said, “The guy said to kill Zitch, so I had to.”  Roscuro looked around and spotted movement in a courtyard to the north, sandwiched between some buildings to the north.  He quietly shared this information with Templeton and Swamprover.

To the south, Marativy was investigating a building and heard some muffled noise, so she went inside, doing her best to not be seen [which she is REALLY good at].  Templeton, on Roscuro's suggestion, dragged Winston south across the peak of the roof and potentially out of the mage’s line of sight.  Winston passively let him.  Swamprover cast Web at the courtyard, filling much of it with sticky strands.  Roscuro leapt across a street [monks have crazy jump capabilities at 6th level, plus Templeton's Haste spell was still in effect] and ran along the roof to try and get a better view into the courtyard.  He spotted the mage moving in the courtyard, but stepped on some of the sticky strands of the Web spell.

The mage, which Roscuro could now see matched the description of Leruu, cast some spell and retreated into the courtyard’s building.  Marativy continued her exploration to the south, locating a concealed door under some stairs.  Templeton continued to pin the unresisting Winston.  Swamprover ignited the webs in the courtyard [I didn’t make note of exactly how she did it].  Roscuro extracted himself from the stick webs, and then jumped past the webbing to the roof of the building Leruu was in, peering down on the far side, waiting for Leruu to exit the building.

Leruu instead cast Dimension Door [Roscuro has seen that spell a lot recently and now recognizes it] to exit the building to…somewhere.  To the south, Marativy discovered a trap on the concealed door and started disarming it.  It was an Exploding Rune, detonated, and caught her in the explosion.  Templeton took Winston’s musket away from him and then resumed pinning the gunslinger.  Swamprover started casting Rain of Frogs at where she thought the mage was located.  Roscuro looked hard for any evidence of the Leruu’s location, but could not locate the mage.

Leruu did something the adventurers could not see.  In the south, behind the now exploded door was a small chamber with ladder descending into a dug-out cellar.  Exploring quickly, Marativy found a person in a hood tied up to a chair.  She removed the hood – it was Frederick!  Templeton continued to pin the placid Winston.  Swamprover finished casting Rain of Frogs, dropping a swarm of frogs in the now empty courtyard and then snuck away.  Roscuro ran back across the roves to where Templeton and Winston were hiding.

Down at the teleportation gate, the black tentacles spell expired.  The mage mentally sent Winston new orders: “The frog must die!”  To the south, underground, Marativy did a quick check to verify Frederick was actually Frederick and not another illusion and then freed him with her wakizashi.  Back on the roof, Winston received his new orders and immediately set to breaking free from Templeton’s pin.  He did so, and in response, Templeton grabbed Winston’s musket and flew away with it, over to a nearby well.  Swamprover returned to the hiding place and cast Force Bolt at Winston, who was staring at her with intent.  Roscuro attempted to land a Stunning Fist on Winston but failed.  [Stunning Fist should be a touch attack and needs a higher save DC to make it useful - this was only the third time I ever had Roscuro try to use it because it is generally a waste of time.]

Leruu sent his flying sword to attack Roscuro, nearly cutting the monk in half.  Roscuro called for a retreat to the teleportation circle in response.  Marativy used her shard to create an image of Frederick still tied up and the explosion having never happened and the she and Frederick climbed the ladder up to the ground floor.  Winston, without his musket but filled with a need to kill Swamprover, pulled a vial of alchemist’s fire and threw it at the grippli, hitting her and splashing Roscuro.  Templeton used the musket as a scoop, filling its barrel with mud and rocks before dumping it in the well.  Swamprover fled to the teleportation gate.  Roscuro ran to the gate by a round-about path, picking up Zitch’s corpse along the way and jumping off the edge of the three-story structure, landing safely on the portal.  [Sixth-level monks don’t fear long drops to the ground due to their 30 feet of Slow Fall.]

Leruu withdrew the flying sword, possibly because he could no longer see his targets.  Marativy and Frederick ran out into the street, conveniently near Templeton, who Marativy flagged down.  Winston pulled out another vial of alchemist’s fire and moved to the roof edge to get a view of his target, Swamprover.  Templeton flew through Marativy and Frederick, scooping them up on the way to the teleportation portal, just managing to reach it before Swamprover activated it, teleporting everyone there back to the basement in Magnimar.

Roscuro set down Zitch’s corpse, and passed out the witch’s cure moderate wounds potions to Swamprover, Marativy, and himself as all three were seriously wounded.  Roscuro also quaffed his personal potion of cure light wounds.  This healed the group most of the way up, but not completely.

The group put together a hasty plan to try and retrieve Winston: Templeton would cast Invisibility and Mage Armor on himself and one other, sneak back through the portal, and they would quickly look for Winston to grab and drag back here.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[High-level mind control spells are terrible for stealing player agency, especially during a side quest.  Leruu seemed to be particularly vicious about it.  We definitely felt ambushed by it.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 23

Session 24

Session 26

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 24

[Day 49 – Basement cleared, then through the portal!]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened June 21, 2021.]

[SPOILERS!  If you are likely to adventure through the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, this campaign will be spoilers all the way down.]

Player Characters

Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 6th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Roscuro – male ratfolk 6th level Monk

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Marativy – female ratfolk 6th level Ninja

Via Roll20

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 6th level Summoner (Synthesist)

Winston – male ratfolk 6th level Gunslinger

Autumn

Day 49

~4:00 PM

Responding to a mimic attacking Swamprover in the hidden basement of Frederick’s kidnapper, Marativy use ki to slide up to the mimic before it was aware of her presence and slashed it with great effect [sneak attack!].  Swamprover escaped from the mimic’s grip and took a short step away from it while ordering her familiar, Snek, to cast a Ray of Frost, which it did to minor effect.  The mimic struck at Marativy as the significant threat, but Roscuro, conveniently adjacent to Marativy, assisted in Marativy’s defense [used Bodyguard feat to give her +2 AC] and the mimic missed her.  Zitch put Protective Luck on Marativy while Roscuro released a flurry of blows on the mimic, hitting three times [one a critical success] but getting stuck to the mimic as a result [the critical success].  Around a corner and at the top of the stairs from the ground floor, Templeton and Winston heard Zitch cackling to maintain the Protective Luck, which informed them that a fight was happening down in the basement.

Marativy slashed the mimic again, followed by Swamprover casting Magic Missile at it, hitting it with four missiles and killing it.  As the rest of the group in the basement started to breathe a sigh of relief, a second mimic, over on a supply shelf, attacked, slamming Zitch and grappling him fast.  Upstairs Winston hopped onto the back of Templeton’s foo dog-shaped synthesis with his eidolon, ready to ride down into the basement.  Zitch attempted to free himself from the mimic attacking him and failed.  Then more bad news arrived: the ten-foot wide sticky part of the stairs came to life – it was a huge shadow mimic!  The shadow mimic, flickering back and forth between this realm and the shadow realm advanced to the entry of the basement.  Templeton flew down the stairs and pulled up short right behind the flickering shadow mimic at the bottom of the stairs.  Roscuro finally pulled free from the sticky remains of the first [now dead] mimic.  He took stock of the situation and started looking for chemicals that might negate the mimic adhesive.  There appeared to be a number of promising containers over on the wall in front of the stairs, adjacent to the immense shadow mimic.

Marativy went to Zitch’s rescue, stepping to flank the mimic holding the witch and slashing it with her wakizashi.  Then Swamprover cast Fire Ball, placing the eruption of flame to catch both mimics but none of her companions.  It also caught the promising containers of chemicals Roscuro was eyeing and several of them promptly exploded!  Roscuro sighed while the second mimic squeezed Zitch, not very impressed by the explosion [it made its save].  From Templeton’s back, Winston rapid fired his musket, placing all three shots on center of mass of the shadow mimic…or where he thought the mass was.  The flickering shadows evaporated around the shots as Winston missed its actual body [displacement effect made all three hits misses].  Zitch flailed feebly in the grip of the second mimic while the shadow mimic turned and grabbed Winston on Templeton’s back, squeezing hard until bones cracked [it made a critical hit and did 34 points of damage].  Templeton attacked the shadow mimic in response, raking it with his claws but the shadow mimic ignored the attendant cold damage from the frigid claws.  Roscuro ran and hopped tables to go to Zitch’s aid, throwing a punch at the second mimic and getting stuck to its adhesive.

Marativy slashed the second mimic while Swamprover pumped Magic Missiles into it.  It maintained its grips on Zitch and Roscuro, squeezing Zitch further.  Zitch involuntarily squeaked as a result.  Winston failed to escape from the shadow mimic while Zitch cast a healing hex upon himself and continued to cackle in the face of death.  The shadow mimic released Winston to attack Templeton, whose attacks were causing it to leak shadowy blood.  It hit Templeton solidly.  Templeton and Winston had a brief discussion about fleeing, but Winston urged Templeton to attack, which he did, clawing the shadow mimic twice and biting it once.  Roscuro landed a flurry of blows on the mimic holding him, killing it while avoiding getting further entangled.

Marativy advanced on the shadow mimic, working to get to a flanking position on it.  Swamprover moved to get a better view of it, hoping to lessen the flicker effect.  Winston jumped off the back of Templeton and ran back up the stairs, leaping over the large gap where the shadow mimic had been sitting.  He activated his newly constructed Pouch of Abundant Ammunition and prepared to rain shots on the shadow mimic from above.  Zitch re-applied Protective Luck to Roscuro and stepped away from the shadow mimic, cackling.  The bleeding shadow mimic maintained its grip on Templeton and squeezed again, damaging Templeton’s eidolon.  Templeton raked it again with attacks, but two of his attacks hit shadows and not flesh.  Roscuro freed himself from the dead second mimic and stepped to striking distance on the shadow mimic, directly opposite Marativy.

Marativy, now flanking the shadow mimic, struck critically, slicing a huge gash in the side of the shadow mimic.  Swamprover cast Flaming Sphere at the shadow mimic but it flowed its flesh to avoid the burning orb.  Winston rapid fired on the shadow mimic, the shadowy displacement caused one of the shots to miss but the other two struck true and killed it.

When no other crates or parts of the basement came to life as mimics, the adventures released the breaths they were holding.  Zitch started healing himself, Winston, and Swamprover.  Roscuro and Marativy took this time to go around the basement with bladed weapons, stabbing every crate or box in the basement.  While doing this they noticed a portal inscribed on the floor of the basement in the back, covered with boxes to hide it.

The entire group started searching the boxes and moving them off the portal.  One of the boxes had writing supplies and a note written in Sylvan.  Swamprover was able to read it.  The note was in response to a report of someone snooping around [Marativy the previous night] and contained instructions from Leruu [the kidnapper] to the guards on this place, instructing them to activate the mimics and hide out elsewhere for a few days.

There was discussion about the portal.  Any wizard could activate it, but they had no idea what was on the other side.  It seemed likely that Frederick had been taken through the portal after being kidnapped by Leruu, so the group felt obliged to go through and at least see what was there.  Zitch placed his Ward on Roscuro while the group gathered on the portal.  Swamprover activated the portal.

After a brief flash of light, the group was standing on the receiving portal, in an alley of some sort among a cluster of buildings.  Three armored humans with swords and shields stood separately, surrounding the arrival point.  One of them called out, “We have intruders!  Kill them!”

That told the Ratpack all they needed to know.

Zitch immediately flew up 15 feet to get out of melee range.  Marativy took a more aggressive action and charged a guard at the end of the alley nearest her, slashing him with her wakizashi, and then using her ki to turn invisible, much to the guard’s consternation.  Templeton cast Haste on the Ratpack.  The guard off a side alley advanced on Templeton and swung his sword, but failed to land a blow on the foo dog-shaped summoner.  Winston activated his Pouch of Abundant Ammunition [it had timed out since he activated it in the mimic fight].  Swamprover cast Acid Arrow on the third guard and then used her sticky toe- and finger-pads to climb onto an adjacent low [one story] building.  Marativy’s guard, no longer seeing the ninja, moved to attack Winston.  His action was interrupted by Marativy’s attack of opportunity as he tried to walk away from her and she literally stabbed him in the back.  The guard turned around and attacked Marativy in response [visible now as invisibility stops when you attack], but completely failed to hit the hasted ninja.  The third guard walked up to the adventurers from in front of them and attacked Templeton, but failed to land the blow due to Roscuro acting as Templeton’s bodyguard.  Roscuro used a ki point to enhance his flurry of blows and attacked the side alley guard, hitting him four times.

Up in the air, Zitch cast Protective Luck on Templeton, who seemed to be drawing the most attacks, and cackled to maintain it.  Marativy, somewhat jittery due to the Haste, nearly dropped her sword on her first attack but plunged the blade into the guard she was fighting, killing the guard, on her second swing.  Templeton fully attacked the guards around him, clawing the guard Roscuro punched and clawing and biting the other.  The side alley guard bled out and died before he could respond to either Templeton or Roscuro.  Winston rapid fired on the remaining guard, killing him with the first bullet.  Suddenly, black, rubbery tentacles erupted from the ground, grappling may of the Ratpack.  Roscuro jumped out of the circle of tentacles, landing safely and peering around, looking for the unexpected spellcaster.  Swamprover, who had been holding her action, spotted a floating sword in the side alley.  Thinking the spellcaster was there, she cast Lightning Bolt on the area.  She did a great deal of damage to the building but there was no other appreciable result.

The unharmed floating sword zipped up through the air and struck Swamprover, nearly cutting the grippli in half [it did most of her hit points in damage in one hit – this is a theme that repeats] while the black tentacles thrashed those trapped in them.  Zitch located the spellcaster on the roof of the tall [three-story] building that made one wall of the alley the teleportation circle was in.  He attempted to lay an Evil Eye on the spellcaster, but it failed to take.  Marativy used a tree adjacent to the tall building to assist in gaining access to the roof, leaping acrobatically between the tree and the building until she was on the roof.  [Go see almost any Jackie Chan movie to learn what this looks like.]  Templeton failed to escape from the tentacles.  Swamprover hopped over to the tree and started climbing.  Roscuro used his ki to enhance his already enhanced speed and sprinted the long way around the tall building to reach the tree Marativy had just used to attain the roof.

The unknown mage moved the floating sword to strike Marativy, nearly killing her.  Zitch put Protective Luck on Marativy to help keep her alive.  Marativy used her ki to turn invisible again, silently walked over to the mage, and slashed him with her wakizashi.  Templeton used Dimension Door to get he and Winston out of the black tentacles and back into the fight.  Winston moved a bit to get a better shot on the mage and rapid fired his musket, striking the mage multiple times [for 43 points of damage total].  Sadly, this did not kill the unknown mage.  Swamprover continued to climb up the side of the tall building while Roscuro copied Marativy’s bouncing trick, reaching the roof himself.  [Swamprover only has 20 feet of climbing speed while Roscuro currently has 70 feet of movement, so even at half speed, he reached the roof much faster than her.]

The mage stepped back from Marativy and cast Dimension Door.  Zitch flew as high as he could and scanned the roof tops.  He spotted the mage on a roof north of the group and called out that information.  Templeton grabbed Winston and flew both of them to the mage, dropping off Winston before swiping at the mage with a claw.  He failed to hit the mage.  Winston stepped back and started rapid firing his musket.  The first shot struck true, revealing this mage to be just an image.  Looking for additional targets, Winston spotted two more copies of the mage and shot each once.  Both were images that dispersed upon being hit.  Swamprover finally reached the roof and started looking around for the mage.  Roscuro looked south and called out that he could see two more, pointing one hand at each.

[As it was late and this fight could go on a while longer, we paused the fight here.]

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[I should point out that this entire bit, retrieving Frederick from his kidnapper, is a side quest invented by the Other DM and not part of the Shattered Star Adventure Path.  It took us (the players) a while to work this out, which honestly REDUCED the sense of urgency on the main adventure.  We once thought Frederick being kidnapped indicated that another party/faction was also seeking the shards and was close behind us, which leant a sense of urgency.  When we learned this was not the case, it took our foot off the accelerator and we…well, you’ll see in a post or two.]

[It is probably obvious, but I’m stating it here just in case: each paragraph in a combat is one round.  It sometimes makes them a bit big and awkward, but helps track the progress of the combat.  I’m not certain how beneficial doing it this way is to the average reader of my blog, but my players seem to appreciate it and it helps my memory if I need to review my notes to answer a question.  Your mileage may vary.]

[Typing up this fight I think I found an error.  The unknown mage dropped the Black Tentacles spell near the end of a combat round.  I believe if he had been holding his action, casting then would have set his initiative at that point, but the Other GM had him go at his normal initiative the next round.  This might have changed the fight as Swamprover would have cast an attack spell at him instead of hiding from the enchanted weapon attack.  It is important to remember small rules like these, especially when different editions treat them differently.]

[By the way, the Other GM actually had a Black Tentacles template that he dropped when the spell was cast and it rocked!  I immediately recognized the spell from its origins in 1st Ed. AD&D and it brought a smile to my face…especially when my character made the save to avoid being grappled by it.  😉]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 23

Session 25

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 22

[Day 48 and 49 – The jig is up and the Ratpack gets the goods.  Peacefully.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened June 7, 2021.]

[SPOILERS!  If you are likely to adventure through the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, this campaign will be spoilers all the way down.]

Player Characters

Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 6th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Roscuro – male ratfolk 6th level Monk

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Marativy – female ratfolk 6th level Ninja

Via Roll20

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 6th level Summoner (Synthesist)

Winston – male ratfolk 6th level Gunslinger

Autumn

Day 48

Sunset

Zitch and Roscuro talked with the three city guards who showed up at the end of the fight with the half-elf monk [previous session].  Roscuro explained the he and Zitch realized they were being followed and ducked down this alley to hide when the half-elf attacked with no provocation.  Zitch pointed out the remains of the tanglefoot bag the half-elf had thrown.  The guards were clearly inclined to believe the two ratfolk as the half-elf had used magic to flee them.

The guards asked what Roscuro and Zitch were doing now and Roscuro told them that they were looking for a place to purchase some dinner and then go home.  The guards escorted them to a nearby eatery area and then resumed their patrol.  Roscuro and Zitch purchased some street food for 2sp before “wandering away” and heading to Carlyle’s home, which the rest of the Ratpack had under observation.

After Sunset

Marativy brought Zitch and Roscuro up to speed on the observations of Carlyle’s house.  It was quiet now so Marativy went around to the back to break in through the window there.  She oiled the hinges of the shutters and used a wire to lift the catch before silently climbing into the house through the window.

The house was partitioned off into two rooms and Marativy was in the larger of the two rooms, which was a combination living room, dining room, and kitchen area.  Turning invisible, Marativy stealthily walked through the doorway to the second room, which was a sleeping room.  Instead of a lizardfolk sleeping in the bed she found a halfling!

The halfling awoke while Marativy was searching the room and drew a knife.  Marativy, still invisible, stood still while the halfling got up and looked around.  [This provided a +40 to her stealth roll, on top of her already impressive skill bonus.]  In the other room, the halfling noticed that the shutters were open on the back window and closed them, muttering to himself about the wind.  He stuck the knife he was carrying into the shutters to hold them closed and went back to bed.  Once the halfling was asleep again, Marativy exited the bedroom.  In the living room area she located the bag that “Carlyle” had been carrying.  She took it and exited the house through the front window.  Outside she walked over to where Roscuro and Zitch were waiting.

Marativy explained what she found.  The trio were confused about where the lizardfolk had escaped to until they went through the contents of the bag.  Inside were a set of thieves’ tools, some rope, a box of fake gems, and a hat of disguise!  The halfling had been walking around disguised as Seeshaah, leaving a false trail.  Roscuro had Marativy describe the halfling in the house and the description fit the halfling Zitch and Roscuro had confronted for tailing them.  As the halfling could not be in two places at once, this suggested that the halfling back in Ordellia was actually Seeshaah wearing another hat of disguise.

Roscuro had the Ratpack redeploy to keep the halfling from sneaking away.  He removed the hat of disguise and the box of fake gems from the bag, placing them in his handy haversack.  He then took the bag and walked over to the front door of the house, knocking on the door when he got to it.  Marativy was concealed off to his right, under the still open front window.

The halfling opened the door with a surly look on his face that disappeared when he saw Roscuro.  The halfling slammed the door shut without saying a word, locked it, and could then be heard searching for something inside.  Roscuro walked over to the window and held the bag up to be seen.  “Looking for this?” Roscuro called out.  After a moment, Roscuro heard the door being unlocked and the halfling said, “Yes.  Come on in.”

Roscuro went inside the house.  The halfling was actually named Carlyle and he particularly wanted the box of fake gems back.  Roscuro wanted information on Seeshaah so he could collect the debt she owed.  The two negotiated and Carlyle agreed to provide information in exchange for the box.  Roscuro pulled the box out of his haversack, set it on the table, and started asking questions.

Carlyle and Seeshaah were supposed to meet in Lowcleft, disguised as each other.  They would then go to the Naos district and break into a new home, where they would swap the fake gems in the box for real gems in the home.  They would then leave town and sell the real and very valuable gems elsewhere for a significant profit.  Roscuro explained he didn’t care about the heist, but he did need to meet with Seeshaah.  Was there any code they would use to suggest any trouble?  Carlyle explained that they would be wearing a brown coat if it was OK to meet and a black coat if there was bad news.  Carlyle also provided the location of the meeting, a small working persons tavern.

Roscuro thanked Carlyle for the information and promised to give him the box of fake gems the next day, at the meeting.  As Carlyle did not want Roscuro to leave with the gems [having promised not to do so] and Roscuro did not want Carlyle to flee and warn Seeshaah, they all stayed the night in the house.  Roscuro called in Marativy and had her tie up Carlyle on his bed to sleep until the meeting.

During the night, Roscuro examined the box of fake gems and discovered a small hiding spot in the bottom.  Inside compartment were a pair of Earrings of Telepathic Communication.  After Zitch identified them, Roscuro put them away in a belt pouch.  He then closed the secret compartment back up and put the fake gems back in the box.  He had promised Carlyle the box of fake gems, but no one had mentioned any earrings so he was keeping those.

Day 49

Late Morning

The Ratpack went to the location of the meeting.  The Roof Group included Carlyle, being held by Templeton, plus Winston and Zitch.  The Street Group, Roscuro, Marativy, and Swamprover, entered the tavern separately an hour before the meeting was supposed to take place.  Roscuro ordered an early lunch of cheese, fruit, and a hunk of bread.

Shortly after the Ratpack was in place, three halflings came in and had lunch at the bar.  One of them was “Carlyle”.  After they ate, “Carlyle” took a table in the corner with a good view of both exits from the tavern.  The other two halflings stayed at the bar.  Roscuro got up and went to talk with “Carlyle”, waving off Swamprover and Marativy.

Roscuro greeted “Carlyle” as Seeshaah, and when she tried to deny it, he explained that he had Carlyle’s hat of disguise.  This took the wind out of her sails and she admitted to being Seeshaah.  Roscuro explained that he was only here to collect the debt she owed and didn’t care about the job they had lined up for this afternoon.  If she would turn over the wooden case and its contents, which she owned to Gavahn, Roscuro would set Carlyle free and return the box of fake gems.  They would then be free to go about their business.  Seeshaah didn’t want to make the trade, but apparently the gem heist would be very profitable, so she agreed, on condition that the exchange happen out in the alley beside the tavern.  Roscuro agreed.

The actual exchange was tense, but once Templeton flew down with Carlyle unharmed and the box of fake gems was shown, Seeshaah produced the small wooden box with gold leaf decorations and the trade happened.  The Ratpack took their leave, allowing Seeshaah and her accomplices to go perform their heist.  The Ratpack did not open the wooden box.

Just After Noon

The Ratpack returned to the cobbler shop in Dockway.  The clerk there was not expecting the ratfolk, so making contact was a little more awkward this time.  When finally escorted to the back room and the secret passage to the underground meeting room, Roscuro, Marativy, and Swamprover were greeted by someone new.  This person introduced himself as Dolan [head of the information broker gang, who recognized Marativy as once being part of his gang].

Roscuro explained he had the debt Gavahn had asked the Ratpack to collect as the fee to expedite their information request.  Dolan was pleased to see the wooden box with gold leaf decorations.  He in turn produced a gem he said was an Ioun Stone that contained all the information the Wreckwash Blades had on Leruu.  Roscuro was surprised to find an Ioun Stone being used in such a way.  Swamprover mistook his surprise to mean Roscuro did not know what an Ioun Stone was and demonstrated by placing it in orbit around her head.  Her memory was immediately filled with the information on Leruu [which was not as extensive as hoped for].  At this point Dolan explained that the stone was single-use only and now Swamprover had the information.

Dolan suggested that since the Ratpack was no longer welcome at the Outcast [due to the “fight” with security], if they needed to buy information they should come to the cobbler shop and ask about laundry.  Roscuro thanked him and the ratfolk [and grippli] left.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[The Other GM promised the info dump on Leruu at the beginning of the next session, so it’s not here yet.  Leruu being the person who kidnapped Frederick and relics pertaining to the Runelord of Gluttony.  At this point the Ratpack merely disliked him.  In a couple sessions we will very much hate him and want him dead.  Stay tuned to find out why.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 23

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 20

[Day 47 and 48 – The Ratpack questions a snitch and takes a meeting, agreeing to a favor.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened May 24, 2021.]

[SPOILERS!  If you are likely to adventure through the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, this campaign will be spoilers all the way down.]

Player Characters

Via Roll20

Marativy – female ratfolk 6th level Ninja

Roscuro – male ratfolk 6th level Monk

Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 6th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 6th level Summoner (Synthesist)

Winston – male ratfolk 6th level Gunslinger

Autumn

Day 47

~10:00 PM

In Naos District, Zitch and Templeton questioned the person they had flown off with.  The human’s name was Leon and he claimed to be a freelance opportunist.

In the meantime, Marativy used her shard of the Shattered Star to get the general location of the shard Templeton carried [and therefore Templeton’s general location].  She recognized the park in Naos they were in and she led Roscuro, Swamprover, and Winston there.

When they arrived, Templeton and Zitch were still questioning Leon, but were running out of questions to ask.  After Templeton briefly updated on what he and Zitch had learned from Leon, Marativy asked Leon if he’d worked with the Night Scales.  Leon let on that he had worked with them in the past and needed the Ratpack’s protection or help getting out of town safely.

Winston and Swamprover immediately agreed to get Leon out of Magnimar.  Roscuro felt he could not guarantee Leon’s safety and wasn’t certain he wanted to, so walked a short distance away.  Marativy recognized that Roscuro’s lawful beliefs was keeping him from making a promise he was not willing or able to keep and explained this when the other Ratfolk looked askance to Roscuro stepping away.

Leon eventually felt confident enough to tell Winston and Swamprover that he had done work as a lookout and some other minor crimes for the Night Scales.  They believe him and agree to get him passage to Kaer Maga.  [I think Leon gave some better information than this, but I don’t have it in my notes.  Either that or the players are just soft touches.]  Marativy stated that she could arrange transportation to Kaer Maga for Leon with the Washside Wringers.  Leon claimed he had meeting to make that would put money in his pocket that he would need when arriving in Kaer Maga  For reasons that are hard to explain, the Ratpack let him go after all agreed to meet at the Torpor Cantina in Lowcleft in four hours.  Roscuro, Winston, Templeton, Zitch, and Swamprover headed directly to the tavern to wait.

Marativy went to a contact she knew with the Washside Wringers, a Sczarni smuggling group.  The best deal she could get for Leon was 200 gp on a boat leaving just before dawn.  She agreed and paid for the passage.  She then went over to the Torpor Cantina to wait with the rest of the Ratpack.

Day 48

~2:00 AM

Leon actually showed up at the Torpor Cantina!  Marativy explained the deal she arranged for him.  The river boat would leave a dock in Ordellia shortly.  Roscuro asked if Leon needed someone to hold his hand until then.  [This caught the Other GM off guard for a moment, but we all agreed it was a very Roscuro thing to say.  Roscuro can be a bit cranky at times.]  Leon retorted that Roscuro needed to learn to get along with people better.  “If I had a gold piece for every time someone told me that I wouldn’t need to be here,” Roscuro replied.  Leon silently handed a gold piece over to Roscuro by way of a reply.  He turned to Winston and Swamprover and asked stated he would like an escort to the boat so nothing would happen to him along the way.

The Ratpack escorted Leon over to Ordellia and put him on the boat.  They stayed until the boat pulled away from the dock to verify the boat itself was not attacked before it left.  Once the boat was out on the river and almost lost to sight, Leon used some magic to send Marativy a note.  The note stated that Leon had worked the job to kidnap Frederick, scouting out Frederick’s warehouse.  As a result, he learned more of the plan than he was supposed to.  He provided an address in Ordellia at the end of the note.  By the time Marativy finished reading the note, the boat was lost from view in the fog.

Marativy shared the information with the group.  Tired, Roscuro suggested she go scout the location to see if anyone was there but not break in.  The entire group was tired and needed rest.  They would deal with the house after getting some sleep.  Marativy agreed to this and she headed off while the rest of the group returned to their respective homes.

~5:00 AM

Marativy located the address Leon provided and snooped around it.  It appeared abandoned, but she discovered that the door was trapped and there were very alert guards inside.  She had to use her ability to turn invisible to avoid being found and attacked.  She did learn that the supposedly nailed up window beside the trapped door was rigged to act as a concealed door.  She left with that useful information in her back pocket.

10:00 AM

The Ratpack met at the Blue Rodent for breakfast and strong coffee.  Marativy reported what she had learned scouting the address Leon had provided.  The group discussed options.  It was tempting to go and investigate the house in Ordellia immediately, but they had a meeting with Gavahn the information broker at Noon and that information might be important.  They decided to go to the meeting first and then go investigate the house.

They again split into two groups, a Roof group and a Street group.  Templeton and Winston are the Roof group and Winston received Zitch’s Ward.  Zitch cast Heroism on Marativy, Roscuro, and Swamprover.

Just Before Noon

The Roof group arrived to the meeting site early to scout around for a good observation place.  The meeting address is a cobbler’s shop [that several of the PCs were incidentally familiar with].  As all the buildings around were single story with very observable rooves, they chose an eatery with outside seating to observe from.

The Street group arrived at Noon and entered the cobbler’s shop.  It is a functional shop with shoes on display.  Roscuro talked with the clerk there and stated he had an appointment to speak with Gavahn.  The clerk showed the ratfolk and grippli into a back room.  In the backroom the clerk opened a secret passage with stairs down and gestured for the group to proceed.  Marativy confidently led the group down the stairs to a door, which she knocked on.  A half-elven woman opened the door and looked over the group before letting them in.

In the cozy room on the other side of the door was Gavahn, sitting at an expensive table.  There were chairs for all four of the adventurers, including one chair with a box in it and a smaller, grippli-sized chair on top of that.  Swamprover claimed that chair and found she was sitting at eye-level with Gavahn as a result.

After greeting the group, Gavahn asked if they had decided to do the favor to cover the expedited information fee.  Roscuro stated that they agreed to do the favor for the expedited information.  Gavahn seemed pleased with this.  Before explaining the favor, he provided the good-faith information he had promised the night before: one of those who kidnapped Frederick was a mage of power named Leruu.  Leruu was an elven male who specialized in this kind of work, but only infrequently worked in Magnimar.

The favor for the expedited information was to collect a debt owed.  The debtor was Seeshaah Sarass, a female lizardfolk.  She was a loner and good in a fight.  The debt was a wooden box and its contents that Seeshaah carried on her person at all times.  Gavahn provided a good description of Seeshaah and the box [5”x12”x2”, wooden with gold leaf decoration].  The Ratpack were not allowed to kill Seeshaah, retrieval of the box was the preferred outcome, although, if necessary, retrieval of Seeshaah would work.

Roscuro asked for some clarifications and was told that they were allowed to use Gavahn’s name with Seeshaah and that the ratfolk were working as his agents to collect the debt.  There were no other agents working this job and the ratpack were to deliver the box directly to Gavahn.  The job needed to be completed in 2 days.

Roscuro accepted the job on the Ratpack’s behalf and they said their goodbye’s to Gavahn.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[This session was played remotely due to the Other GM and Marativy’s player doing anniversary things – I didn’t ask.  Their wedding anniversary proper was a few days later.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

Session 11

Session 12

Session 13

Session 14

Session 15

Session 16

Session 17

Session 18

Session 19

Session 21

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 19

[Day 47 – The Ratpack makes inquiries and gets into trouble.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened May 17, 2021.]

[SPOILERS!  If you are likely to adventure through the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, this campaign will be spoilers all the way down.]

Player Characters

Via Roll20

Marativy – female ratfolk 6th level Ninja

Roscuro – male ratfolk 6th level Monk

Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 6th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 6th level Summoner (Synthesist)

Winston – male ratfolk 6th level Gunslinger

Autumn

[We worked out Winston hiring Gridik to craft the pouch of Abundant Ammunition here and then retconned it and Gridik making the Pearl of Power back to the previous session.]

Day 47

After Sunset

The Ratpack arrived at the Outcast Fishery once it was dark.  They split into a Roof group, who would stay outside and keep an eye on things, and a Street group that would go in and see if they could learn anything about Frederick’s kidnapping.  [The PCs started using this dividing into teams plan more often as time went on.]  The Roof Group consisted of Templeton and Winston, who had Zitch’s Ward cast upon him.  The Street Group was Marativy, Roscuro, Zitch, and Swamprover.  The Roof Group was told that if they heard Zitch’s cackle, there was trouble.  Reciprocally, if the Ward on Winston dropped, the Street group would be warned there was trouble outside.  Marativy warned the Roof group that the Outcast had guards up on the roof [of the fishery], so they elected to hide in an alley across the street and observe the front of the building from there.

As the Street group approached the guards blocking the entrance to the Fishery, Swamprover insisted she wanted to do the talking.  As she was one of the most Charismatic of the Ratpack [which was not a high bar to clear at all], it seemed like a good choice to Roscuro.  When the toughs guarding the door asked what the group wanted, Swamprover immediately told the they were here to talk to Frederick.  This confused the guards to no end.  Luckily, Marativy [lowest Charisma in the group] used her criminal knowledge, stepped up, and told the guards the group was her to speak with Donal.  This the guards understood and they let the ratfolk and grippli inside.

The Outcast was a large open building, similar to a warehouse, where fish caught in the bay were deposited by the fishing boats and then sold.  At night, the mostly empty building hosted agents of the criminal underworld, those looking to do business with them, and those providing services such as drinks and tavern snacks to both.  Once the Street group was inside, Marativy explained to the others that Donal was the head of the Wreckwash Blades, information brokers part of the Sczarni organization.

Marativy guided the group to a table near an impromptu tavern.  She explained that the people the group wanted to speak with were talking to others and they needed to wait.  Roscuro bought a pint for everyone at the table so they would not stand out [nor get the stink eye from the person running the impromptu tavern].

While waiting, some other ratfolk were noticed at another table gambling.  Swamprover decided she wanted to gamble while she waited, so she went over to that table.  Marativy, never one to miss an opportunity to [cheat at] gambling followed, as did Zitch who wanted to watch.  Not wanting to be separated from the group, Roscuro sighed and followed them over to the gambling table.

After a couple rounds [Swamprover was down 6 gold, Marativy up 12 gold], the people the group was waiting for became available.  The Street group made their way to a table with a human and a dwarf sitting at it.  The human introduced himself as Gavahn and asked what the ratfolk wanted to know.  Roscuro explained that they wanted information on the kidnapping of a merchant, Frederick, a couple weeks ago by the Night Scales [I was more circumspect than that, but I didn’t get much in my notes as I was doing the roleplaying].  Gavahn explained that the information being asked for would take some time to gather as the Night Scales tended to kill those looking into their business.  He also offered that the information could be expedited in exchange for a favor.  Roscuro was not certain about owing a favor to a criminal operation and did not commit, but stated the group needed time to think over that part.  Gavahn offered to provide preliminary information at a more private meeting the next day to let the ratfolk better estimate the value of the favor.  Roscuro agreed to that and was given an address in Dockway to meet at Noon the next day.

During this conversation, Zitch noticed a human at a nearby table nearly spill his drink when the words “Frederick” and “runelord” were uttered.  As the meeting with Gavahn concluded, the person also got up to leave.  Zitch pointed him out to Roscuro and the Street group started off in pursuit.  The human got out of Outcast ahead of the Street group, but the Roof group noticed that Roscuro was clearly walking with intent at the human who had left the building just ahead of him.

Winston stepped out of the alley and “accidentally” walked into the human, sending them both to the ground.  The human got back up without speaking to Winston [who was pretending to apologize], so Winston grappled the human.  Roscuro ran up to help Winston hold the guy, thinking they would drag him into the alley.  Swamprover cast Flare to try and blind the guy but instead drew the attention of the guards up on the Outcast.  [Whose purview extended much farther than the Ratpack thought it would.]

The closest guard yelled out for the group to halt what they were doing.  [At this point there was confusion as to where the guard was.  I thought he was above us on the building we were next to, but he was actually across the street on top of the Outcast.  Things might have happened differently if this had been made clear sooner.]  Swamprover went to put an Arcane Mark on the guy so we could find him later if he escaped, but the guard heard her casting and ordered her to stop.  Roscuro whispered for her to complete the spell and she did.  Roscuro did his best to stand between Swamprover and the guard to block the shot, but the guard hit her anyway.

At this point three more guards showed up on the roof [and I finally understood they were across the street and not directly over us].  Seeing this was getting out of hand, Roscuro whispered to the Ratpack to run down the alley and get out of there.  The guards all shot at the Ratpack before any steps to escape were taken [and a big argument was had about them getting free shots before initiative was rolled].

Roscuro and Winston dragged the human back into the alley where Templeton was waiting.  Templeton took the guy by the scruff of the neck and flew off with him.  Zitch used his new flight power and followed Templeton into the air.  Those two took a long loop to the south, flying over Keystone and Lowcleft before landing in a park in the Naos district.

The rest of the Ratpack ran for it through the alleys and back streets, gradually making their way around southern Beacon’s Point and then east to Dockway.  Swamprover complained about the crossbow bolt sticking out of her the whole way.  Once in Dockway, Winston used his healing knowledge to safely remove the bolt from Swamprover.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[This session was played remotely due to very heavy rains off and on all day.  Not wanting to endanger the Other GM’s electronics (he runs off his laptop), it was easier to play remotely.]

[Sorry for this being a bit late – there is a lot going on right now.  June has a cluster of social events with friends and family and this year my wife has a Significant Birthday and has asked me to put together the party.  It’s fair as she planned mine, but this is really outside my comfort zone.  End of the whine.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

Session 11

Session 12

Session 13

Session 14

Session 15

Session 16

Session 17

Session 18

Session 20