Sessions 22-25: Cut-Throat's Gold

Post date: Sep 02, 2016 12:1:23 AM

These session summaries were originally posted to The Piazza in September and October 2014, and have been edited to remove spoilers for future sessions. Out-of-character commentary is in italics.

Cut-Throat's Gold, by Graeme Davis, appeared Tales of Freeport, a v.3.0 adventure anthology, and is designed for levels 4-7. We had converted "Winds" to Pathfinder shortly before I ran this adventure, and it was the first adventure for our two new recruits (bringing the party total to five 6th-level characters.) Now that the campaign is concluded, I have posted my conversion notes for the adventure to Tim's Errata Archive.

Session 22 (8/17/2014)

Our two new PCs are:

• Damarak: male undine cleric 6 (Melkarth, god of storm and strength). Originally from the Ivory Ports, he grew weary of regular temple life and came to Freeport seeking more exciting adventures.

• Issalia, female sylph witch 6 (trickery patron). Also originally from Khaeder (the southern continent), but having the wanderlust common to her race, she has travelled extensively in Rolland and the Ivory Ports, and recently arrived in Freeport.

We had our first session with the new players a couple weeks ago, and it went well. Much of the session was spent role-playing the party meeting the new characters, which, true to classic old-school convention and this group's own bar-crawling habits, took place in a tavern. Harissa, Inacio, and Larkspur have been preparing for a sea voyage to find Black-Hearted Billy's treasure, but their friend Marisol is too busy studying with her master to join them. This leaves them short-handed for sailing their (admittedly small) ship, so they've been on the lookout for new recruits--while trying to dodge the notice of Harissa's jilted betrothed as well as the attention of the cult behind the Crimson Weal.

This evening, Damarak saw the gang drinking in the Bilge Rat, one of the dives near the docks. He's been hanging out around the docks and talking with adventurers, and found this group more more exotic than most--an undine, an azhari, and some kind of talking ape [a hadozee]. He approached them and offered to buy them drinks in exchange for tales of their adventures. They gladly agreed to this, and spent a pleasant evening swapping stories. In time, they learned that Damarak was a trained sailor and interested in joining a crew, so invited him to join their little quest.

Meanwhile, Issalia had noticed this group as well, but her shyness kept her from approaching them herself. Her interest in them finally came to their attention, and Larkspur guessed she must be an arcane spellcaster based on her owl companion and lack of obvious weapons. The druid decided to go to her and ask if she was a mage in search of employment. The offer did indeed catch her interest--it sounded far more exciting than her current job working as an alchemist's assistant! She asked for more details about their mission, then agreed to join them for a share. She hypothesized that if the ruined city on the map were anywhere near Freeport, it was likely to be of Valossan origin.

Damarak returned to the Half-Pint with the others that night. Issalia joined them the next day, after collecting her things and giving notice to her employer.

The crew spent about a week sailing to the area they had determined Billy used to hide from his enemies. They weathered a storm, then were attacked by a party of sahaugin led by an unusually large warrior. They fought off the sea devils, leaving no survivors, and spent some time salvaging the creatures' gear from the sea (mostly weapons, but the leader also had a couple of minor magical trinkets).

Session 23 (9/7/2014)

The crew of the Half-Pint spied land, finding a jungle-covered island a couple of miles long. They sailed around it, but caught no glimpse of the ruined city they sought. They did, however, find a swampy delta much like the one shown on the treasure map, so dropped anchor and took the longboat in. Larkspur and Inancio's animal companions--a crocodile and elasmosaurus, respectively--swam alongside, as did the amphibious druid.

Not long after entering the river, the party encountered a giant saltwater crocodile, which nearly upended the boat before they fought it off. As it was, Damarak and Issalia were dunked in the river, but got clear while the others kept the beast busy. They managed to slay the croc, and (with effort) pulled its carcass to shore to butcher for its hide and meat. Rather than take an overburdened boat upriver, they carried their trophies back to the ship before setting out again, leaving the rest of the remains for scavengers.

Larkspur sensed an approaching piranha swarm in time to get the swimmers out of the water. Those in the rowboat weathered a brief bumpy ride as the fish passed under them, but avoided taking any damage and thus inciting a frenzy.

Some time afterwards, the party was attacked by a lizardfolk patrol. The reptiles' leader suffered an ignominius death by drowning after being hit by Issalia's slumber hex while swimming to the attack, and the party quickly dispatched the others more conventionally.

It was now nearly evening, but they soon spied a clearing ahead that contained crumbling stone buildings and crudely built huts. The backed away downstream and sent Inacio ahead to scout. He discovered that the ruined city was inhabited by lizardfolk, but that they avoided the eastern part of the city. At the center of their territory was a large temple of some sort (which Damarak later identified as dedicated to Yig, ancient god of the mysterious serpent people). Inacio investigated the seemingly abandoned quarter and found a corral of animated human and lizardfolk corpses. Nearby, in the cliff wall that surrounded the city on three sides, he spotted a cave entrance guarded by ogre zombies. He returned to the party to report, and the others agreed that the cave must be the treasure location marked on the map. They remain confused about the presence of the undead, however, and what connection they might have to the living reptiles.

The party decided to hide the dinghy in the delta and climb up to the cliff from the far eastern edge of the city in order to avoid being seen from the village. (Both animal companions can go about on land easily enough, but neither is suited to climbing, so rather than leave them behind, Larkspur assumed dire ape form to carry them up the cliff.) They made a cold camp in some ruins that gave a good view of the lower city, and set watches. In the morning, they plan to scale down from directly above the cave...if their night's rest isn't interrupted first...

Session 24 (9/14/2014)

Late that night, a shambling mound attacked Damarak while he and Larkspur were on watch. Fortunately for the cleric, once the others woke up and joined the fight, the creature decided that defending itself was more important than squeezing him to death. However, it failed in that goal, too, and was eventually killed.

After a late start to allow the witch to catch up on sleep interrupted by the attack, the party employed hide from undead and a silenced arrow to climb down and ambush the ogre zombies. Those minions went down almost instantly in the surprise round, but the now-revealed party drew the attention of the nearby corral of skeletons and zombies. Those undead broke out and attacked the party, but their crowded numbers allowed Damarak to catch most of them in bursts of channeled energy.

During this fight, Larkspur investigated the cave, and noticed the undead's master in time to dodge a black ray. She called for help, and Issalia and Damarak joined her while Harissa and Inacio mopped up the last of the undead. The necromancer, Thomas Hariot [converted as a sorcerer with the undead bloodline] inflicted some serious damage with his grasp of the dead attack. (Issalia was lucky enough to save for half damage and avoid a messy death. The two priests failed, but have the highest HP in the party.) Inacio's arrival with the silenced arrow spelled the end for Harriot, because he was unable to use his spells to do more damage, save his special project, or escape. His last-ditch attempt to flee out of range came too late, and he was cut down instead.

The original v.3.0 adventure describes Harriot as crafting a composite zombie from leftover pieces of ruined undead. However, the rules explicit rule out reanimating destroyed undead, so I swapped some of his feats to give him Craft Construct, and made his special project into a carrion golem (Pathfinder Role-playing Game Bestiary 2). After offing the sorcerer, the party made sure to smash up his almost-finished golem (which they mistook for a flesh golem) for good measure.

They then searched the workroom and living quarters in the cave. They found a large hoard of Valossan artifacts, and many notebooks written by Hariot, about his necromantic experiments as well as his translation of Valossan. Issalia felt confident that with the latter notes, and the Valossan texts in the dead sorcerer's collection, she would be able to quickly learn that obscure language.

The party now has enough XP for 7th level, but needs to wait for an opportunity to rest and reflect in a safe place before they can actually advance.

Session 25 (9/25/2014)

The party identified and divided up Hariot's magic items. While they did so, their lookout noticed that the lizardfolk were gathering near the river bisecting the city, and were watching the PCs intently. Issalia cast tongues on Harissa (the most charismatic PC), Inacio beheaded the sorcerer and put the head on a spear, and the party went to go parley with the reptiles.

When it was confirmed that the party had slain the necromancer who had plagued the village, the lizardfolk chief and shaman thanked them and invited them to come speak with the local spirit. This spirit turned out to be a serpent person ghost, a dead cleric of Yig named Ssvalish. The ghost thanked them for their actions and offered a reward from the tribe's hoard. (The PCs gladly accepted, as the "pirate treasure" they had sought turned out to be a stash of obscure, hard-to-sell antiquities, not the ready cash they'd hoped for.) As the chief left to arrange a feast in their honor, Ssvalish asked the PCs to tell him more about themselves, and how they came to defeat Hariot. He then told them about his own origin and his assumed role of protector of the lizardfolk after their serpent people masters died out. [See Tales of Freeport for details.]

While the feast was being prepared, the PCs retrieved their rowboat and returned to the cave to pack up treasure. They put the most portable pieces--mostly books and jewelry--into Larskpur and Issalia's handy haversacks, and decided to leave the bulkier stuff behind. They made this decision in part to avoid attracting the lizardfolk's attention by carrying out artifacts that the tribe might feel belonged to them, and partly to avoid the effort of ferrying multiple loads of bulky cargo, that might or might not bring a worthwhile price, to their ship.

At the feast, Larkspur discovered that the chief had a deinonychus companion, and asked permission to approach it. This led to the discovery that he(?) was also a druid, and they talked shop at some length. Meanwhile, Harissa quickly got smashed on the local fermented fruit beverage, and Issalia overindulged a bit herself. Damarak scored points with the shaman by politely asking questions about the tribe's gods, and was rewarded with some new lore about Semuanya* and Yig. He got the strong impression that the lizardfolk idolize the serpent people, and Ssvalish especially so.

They party eventually made their goodbyes, returned to the ship, and began the voyage back to Freeport. During the week or so return trip, they leveled up.

Back in Freeport, they visited their favorite magic shop, the Valiant Weasel, and sold some of the magic items they had no use for. The owner, Amanashaya, is a loremaster and mystic theurge who was a PC in my first two Freeport campaigns, but now retired as a high-level NPC. (That player is now playing Larkspur.) She continues to be keenly interested in serpent people lore and forbidden lore in general, so was the obvious person to approach about selling Hariot's notebooks and Valossan artifacts. Harissa's silver tongue [natural 20's on two Diplomacy rolls!] insured the party got a good price for their loot.

With their new wealth, the party spent some time celebrating and shopping. Inacio's elasmosaurus companion is now Large, so he spent some time and money acquiring an exotic saddle and enchanted barding so that he can ride Lapras into battle during their next adventure.

Harissa now has the Leadership feat, so spent some time at Harrimast's temple recruiting out-of-work sailors to fill out the Half-Pint's crew.