When the dust settles from the “successful” ambush plan, the party has arrived in Westcrown and is asked by Gorvio to return the horses they borrowed for the operation to his uncle. When they get to the stables, they walk into an argument going on between his uncle Jacovo and a dashing young man named Thesing Umbero Ulvauno. Thesing is a famous actor in Westcrown. The party knows this because in the amount of time it took between seeing the 2 engaged in social combat to actually standing in their presence he has mentioned his career and fame at least 10 times. At this point Jacovo has lost the battle of words and is being berated by the noble and honorable Thesing - who clearly has done nothing to deserve this treatment. The discrepancy is that Thesing has a role to play this afternoon in which he “had reserved only the finest steed to ride on into the sunset with the princess” which is “obviously ruined now that all that is available is tired old hags”. I believe at this point Zumry has decided to take a leak on a tree and afterwards proceeds to mock Thesing from behind his back. Kiyara makes use of her local celebrity weight to calm Thesing and turns on her feminine charm to help ease Thesing out of his tirade and instead to a more favorable disposition. Thesing realizes that she was riding the horse he was looking for and since she test rode the horse, personally believes that it will be up for the challenge. Jacovo is pleased with the situation turning out ok, he can’t afford to lose anymore business in these times. The group does hear whispers later that the play went extremely well - except for the final act, when the steed bucked Thesing into the mud and kicked a stagehand in the face.

   The job went well (considering) and the group is going to stay out of trouble the best they can for a few weeks, but maybe take a couple side jobs. They stay in close contact with each other during this month while Arael regains his strength and some of them are working with NPC members of the Children of Westcrown - training them to become heroes someday.

   Kiyara has a knack for keeping her ear to the ground while working the entertainment scene (entertainers have great gossip). She hears of person only going by the name “Blue Hood” that is willing to pay gold for the successful slaying and delivery of a shadow beast. There is an address for which someone would leave the carcass and promise of gold soon after the body is verified. Kiyara mentions this to the group and over the next few days they gather the courage to maybe confront one of the beasts. There was no official plan, Zumoriev kind of just up and left one evening to see what would happen if he were attacked. Malaky saw that he was heading out at night and mentioned to the others. No longer facing this threat alone Zumoriev and the gang decide to take an evening stroll with weapons at the ready. This is an interesting thing because many of them have not ever seen the night sky like this. A couple of them walk in amazement at the vast amount of stars. It doesn’t take long before they’re attacked, and funny enough they prep for a big battle (Kiyara uses “Inspire Courage”, Group gets into attack formation, etc) a beast leaps at the group and Malaky rolls a nearly max damage critical with his punching dagger (x3 Crits baby) delivered straight to the skull of the beast. Of course this fells the shadow beast in a  single blow so the group is feeling invincible now. Lanterns are turning on from the homes above - a child is heard “I think its a parade mommy” (Oops someone is playing inspiring music in the street at night - while the city is asleep). Zumry and Solomon study the corpse in hopes to learn more about it (Zumoriev rolled a god damn max knowledge check so I just hand him the book with the Shadow Beast entry page and let him read about it himself). A man hails from above - rubbing his eyes which are now adjusting to the light in the street “I think they killed a shadow beast!” then heard from other windows is a cheer and one older voice shouts to “stop all of the damn racket”. At the sound of the cheers Malaky raises his weapon in the air proudly and waves at the onlookers above, when one of them realizes “oh shit, it’s a tiefling” and they all close their shutters. The beast is taken to the address given and the party returns to the hideout safely and quickly awaiting the next day where they may get their awaited payment.

   When the next day arrives the party is awoken early on by a knock on the secret door. Its a dark-skinned male under a grey cloak. He is not recognized by anyone in the group but insists that they take his delivery as they deserve its contents. His boss has more work for them if they are interested. Solomon opens the package and inside he finds the bounty specified by Kiyara for the slaying of a shadow beast as well as a Silver Punching Dagger, to be given in good faith to the slayer of the beast. Now the group - although weary about this unknown individual knowing their hideout location - eases up a little and allows him in to discuss further side jobs.

  Enter the player character known only as “Grey Hood”. Grey Hood is played by a friend of the player in control of Nadia. He hasn’t played pathfinder’s rules before but has played D&D many years ago. I like to think of him as a real life gypsy and as such we decided to allow him to play as an enigmatic character that will enter and exit the storyline as we please. Also he rolled his alignment on a d10 (fuckin' baller) and as fate would have it - another lawful evil character in the ranks. Grey Hood explains himself (and Blue Hood) as agents that works for The Spectrum - an information service that works in secret. Prism - their broker - is very elusive and changes hideouts quite often, but uses the sewers as his main channel to move information and sometimes goods throughout the city. It is his wish to help the Children of Westcrown’s cause, because symbiotically he may also get things he pleases out of it. If they help him do jobs that require muscle and magic they will also be doing things that assist the city in general, along with fame/notoriety there will also be reward such as the package they just received.

   If they are interested, Grey Hood has a job that might be up their alley (get it, ‘cause they’re in an alley?). It would certainly help the city and Grey Hood will tag along to guide the group and see that it is complete. The party admits that they are interested in doing this and any monetary reward that could come along with it, so Grey Hood gives the details. A creature going by the name of Whitechin (yes, yes, the innuendoes begin) claiming himself to be a Goblin King and has structured and mobilized goblin clans in the north ruins of the city. Under his “rule” Whitechin’s forces have successfully badgered many merchants - never killing but at least stealing clothes, jewelry and other fineries. More goblins are rallying to his cause as they’ve seen there is a greater success under Whitechin’s leadership. Prism doesn’t want to see Whitechin’s rule spread as it will be infectious and hard to stop once it gets rolling, they are to eradicate Whitechin and any goblins found at their ruins hideout.

  The northern ruins of Westcrown may have been left behind, but they aren’t necessarily abandoned. There is a wall that was built to section it off from the rest of the city, guards are stationed at different points to keep people from one side to the other. The party had considered waiting until nightfall to scale the wall, but remembered that they could take the sewers opted to do that rather than deal with shadow beasts. Grey Hood gives them a general description of where the goblin king has claim territory, he and Zumoriev are going to scout ahead and look for a vantage point to spring their attack. Both players successfully stealth check around the area and report back to the others a battle plan.

   The players launch their attack, the camp looks like it houses more than the dozen or so goblins that were present. Whitechin raises from his “throne” (a ruined fountain in the plaza of the abandoned street) which is fashioned from garbage and scraps and orders the dogs be let loose on the party. The party takes note that he doesn’t look like the other goblins, but can’t put their finger on what he actually is without further inspection. Solomon pummels and smashes his way to the throne with Zumoriev and Linanesh close behind taking out the goblin dogs. Meanwhile Kiyara’s music has started and Gorvega, Malaky and Grey Hood flank the throne area from other buildings facing the fountain and catch other goblins from behind. Whitechin thinks he’s going to slink away from the action when he becomes outmanned, and thanks to a well used sleep spell by Kiyara he doesn’t get away. They execute Whitechin for his crimes and begin looking for the stolen goods. When Whitechin has died, it is revealed that Whitechin was not a goblin - he was a werecreature. His body reverts back to his human form and while the rest of the party searches for stolen goods, Grey Hood slightly reveals a minor ulterior motive and slips the family sigil ring off of the dead man’s corpse. I was sooooo close to turning Solomon into a were-creature btw, damn it!

   The group did find the stolen goods and brought them back to the Children of Westcrown hideout. Grey Hood thanks them for their assistance and they are paid a handsome reward. Reluctantly - on a later date during downtime - the group returns the stolen goods, leaving their calling card (which will be discussed at a later date). This way the people know that their hardships have been taken note, that there is an elusive group of people that fights in Westcrown’s corner. They are the Children of Westcrown - and they just got 3 more fame points.

This session took place only a few days after the previously cliffhanger of a conclusion with a very small subset of the players present (those not paralyzed) to see if it was a TPK or not.  The combat started as it had left off, with half the party down and the cleric and wizard left with a tactical withdrawal in the face of impossible odds.  The plan is to stall for as long as possible so that their companions can recover from the paralysis and rejoin the fight.  At the beginning of the fight there are two lieutenants, about fourteen guardsmen, the general, and the evil cleric present on the enemies side.  Many of these enemies are either nauseated, asleep, or paralyzed but will recover throughout the fight.  The following combat was short, but a bit complicated and may best be described at least in brief round by round. 

Round 1: Eurreal and Relemyr retreat party way down the hallway with Eurreal defending and trying to block followers from rushing past at the wizard.  Relemyr uses a scroll of charm person on a mercenary to protect them and the cleric casts a silence spell at the bend.  The newly made friend is called Steve and proceeds to block the corridor with the cleric and defend the squishy wizard. 

Round 2: Eurreal casts a heat metal on the opposing general and the evil cleric (which does not work on the cleric implying magical armor is present) while Relemyr uses a wall of fog to obscure enemy spellcasting and missile attacks.

Round 3: A second heat metal spell is cast on some of the lieutenants and brigands and Relemyr uses a scroll of magic missile.  Steve continues to defend and hold the line despite taking some minor nicks and scrapes.

Round 4: Eurreal casts a spiritual weapon to attack the second rank back and Relemyr throws some darts as he maneuvers into position for his last ditch effort.  Some unidentified chanting in the fog is thought to be the a healing spell though the  party has no way to confirm this. 

Round 5: Steve continues to hold and Eurreal switches to melee combat instead of spellcasting as he is starting to run low on attack spells – the spiritual weapon continues to hery the back row to little real effect.  By this point Relemyr has maneuvered just right to smash one of his specially prepared gems sending a lightning bolt down the packed hallway.  This takes out many of the brigand guardsmen but a few will come straggling in as their debilitating conditions come to an end over the next few rounds. The lieutenant, general, and cleric are all still alive however. 

Round 6: Against all odds the party is still alive, and what’s more, most of the enemy soldiers have been disabled.  Another frantic round of melee sees the Eurreal winged but not dropped and somehow Steve taking a third hit for minimal damage which almost but doesn’t quite kill him.  Relemyr is mostly out of tricks and tosses ineffective darts forward.

Round 7: Perhaps fed up with the incompetence of the underlings, the general and cleric move forward and begin to fight in earnest.  Eurreal is hard pressed to keep them at bay and Steve survives another round, barely.  Relemyr gets a lucky throw in with a vial of acid right into the face of Loranth the beautiful…who is suddenly not quite so beautiful but a lot more angry. 

Round 8: Eurreal gets in a final lucky swing with his longsword and nearly drops the general.  Loranth casts a second hold person now that he can see through the edge of the fog, which catches Eurreal by surprise but does not stick on the elf wizard.  Relemyr throws another vial but misses only causing some minor splash damage.  Sadly, Steve is dropped as well, though again from a hit for minimal damage meaning he might be able to be saved if the party can live through this one. 

At this point, the previous paralysis on the party from the hold person is wearing off along with the fog and silence affects.  Azgoth, Pyron, Aoelin come around to see about five of the bandits up along with the enemy cleric, Loranth the Beautiful, and a severally injured general.  The tides have started to reverse, but Eurreal is now paralyzed meaning there is nothing between the enemies and the fragile wizard in the hallway.  The session ended on a second cliffhanger with the party hopeful, but still far from victorious.

The session started out after the party had taken a rest in the cramped confines of a small room connected to a secret stairway and two other secret doors.  Argo’s player was not present for this session as well so we sent him back to town to check on our previously rescued hostages.  We had decided as a group to head in a different direction then previously and went through the secret door to the east.  This doorway led into an angled corridor which we followed to a T-intersection.  We headed to the east here and quickly entered a suite of rooms with bugbears present.  The fight was short and offered a little loot. A number of doors on the far side of the set of chambers were then explored with little additional result other than setting off a portcullis trap which blocked the way back to the secret door but left the T-branch open.  Not seeing an immediate way to deal with this and coupled with the fact that the bugbear rooms were otherwise a dead-end, the party headed on down the western branch of the T without looking too carefully at the portcullis.  We found a nearly identical set of rooms as to the east, but this time filled with gnolls.  Again, the fight was quick and a decisive victory for the party.  An additional corridor led to the south, but the party decided to have a closer look at the portcullis first.  After a long search of bad rolls and confused inspections, no mechanism was found to release it from its locked position.  Aoelin took an attempt at bending the bars but found them to be beyond his strength.

            The corridor continued for a long ways to the south with additional side passages present.  One to the west appears to link back to the catacomb chamber which had had ghouls previously, while another to the east ended after only a few feet at a door.  The corridor also continued down to the south.  Breaking a cardinal rule of exploration, the party decided to go through a closed door before continuing down the corridor…perhaps setting the stage for the following encounter.  The door took a bit of blunt force impact in the form of a dwarven kick from Azgoth in order to be opened and revealed a long tunnel extending beyond the light present or even dwarven infravision.  To the immediate side was an additional door opening to the north.  After a bit of deliberation Azgoth kicked this door in as well and the party saw a moderately long hallway which turned west after about fifty feet.  Additionally, there were a number of humans (specifically four, though more were quick to round the bend) wearing green cloaks with the eye emblem previously found present upon it.  They had been alerted by the loud crashing of the outer doors and stood ready with crossbows (which winged the dwarf and wizard as they let loose).  Seeing only four guards, and perhaps slightly over confident from the previous successes of the day, the party rushed to engage.  The first few rounds of combat went well, even as reinforcements started to arrive, and then a third wave was heard approaching.  A stinking cloud divided the reinforcements at first, but then acted to hinder the pursuit as the party tried to push forward as the brigands attempted a retreat (this was accompanied by a lively debate upon the proper term on if these were indeed brigands, bandits, ruffians, or other ilk).  As the party turned the corridor in chase, it quickly became apparent that this might have been more than they bargained for with another group of about ten brigands in the room. Still game to try the Azgoth, Pyron, Aoelin thief entered into the melee while Relemyr and Eurreal hung back to cast spells.  The fight proceeds with the Azgoth and Pyron heading deeper into the room (Pyron circling a bit wide), Aoelin taking up a flanking to one side, Eurreal casting a healing spell on Relemyr who had been hit squarely with a stray crossbow bolt in the opening salvo, and Relemyr dropping a sleep spell on the combatants.  From the back of the room, where more reinforcements were still in the process of arriving, the sound of chanting resolved into effect as an evil cleric (Lorath, or Lorinc, or something like it, ‘the Beautiful’ we later learned) stepped forward and cast a hold person which paralyzed the leading combatants – dropping the Azgoth, Pyron, and Aoelin out of the immediate fight.  With the evil cleric there also appeared to be a higher level fighter as a general who was wearing full plate and using a sword.  Left too far forward for an easy retreat, but with half the party removed from action, the two remaining heroes were forced to make a difficult choice between discretion and valor.  With this in mind, the session ended on a cliffhanger.   

The first game started with the party (minus Argo who was lagging somewhat behind) arriving in the town of Homlet and discovering much of the background for the setting discussed in the previous post.  We stopped by the tavern, The Inn of the Welcome Wench, and talked with the innkeeper and some of the patrons – including a sourly wizard type and a burly fighter type as well as a few merchants.  This conversation produced a couple of possible hirelings (which were ‘tactfully’ declined) and reports from the merchants of semi-organized banditry in the area with humans and demihumans (such as goblins, orcs, gnolls, and bugbears) working together.  Afterward this discovery, the party proceeded to the newly built temple to Thoth and Horus on the hill to the north.  There we encountered the ill-tempered clergy who demanded ‘donations’ for even basic information about the current situation of the town.  Relemyr gave him a small gemstone in exchange for a few questions and a vial of holy water.

With this initial foray into the town’s politics completed the party decided to split up and look for more sources of information.  Eurreal remained to make his donations and talk with the other clergymen present.  Azgoth headed to the brewery and was disappointed to find out that they had an exclusive contract with the tavern and that he would have to return there if he wanted any liquid fortification.  Pyron and Aoelin proceeded to the local druid who had a small grove off the village center and encountered much the same situation and backstory as at the temple, but they managed to determine the location of the Moat House which was a small keep built by the elemental evil forces in the previous altercation a generation ago but has since fallen into ruins.  Relemyr went to the village elder and heard much the same story, though from the perspective of one who was involved in some of the battles as an infantryman.  Relemyr informed the elder that they would look into the moat house and bandit issues but was largely ignored (perhaps from the large number of low level and ineffectual adventurers in the region).  The party reconvened at the tavern and decided to head out to the moat house thinking it might serve as a handy base of operations for the bandits in the region.  On their way out of town they stopped at the keep-in-progress on the road out of town.  The keep is being funded by support from Procampur and is currently controlled by a former adventuring duo.  The party met with one of them, by the name of Bernie, who was a wizard and lead a mercenary/militia force that guards the town by the name of Bernie’s Badgers.  No new information was gained, but the interaction was less monetarily concerned then some of the other social situations of Homlet. 

The party hiked a half day through thick underbrush and swamplands along a mostly destroyed roadway to get to the moat house.  As they approached Aoelin snuck ahead to observe the battlements and was ambushed by giant frogs. Three surrounded him and a few smaller ones intercepted the vanguard of the party.   The party rushed to his aid and together made rather quick work of the amphibious menace  with no major injuries on their side.  After the battle they took the time to examine the outer façade of the keep and saw that it was mostly in ruins.  Some of the walls and all of the upper stories were collapsed (except for one outer shield tower).  A drawbridge was down but in poor shape as well.  The party preceded into the courtyard and when no immediate danger was found, turned left to explore the only standing tower.  It should be noted here, because it is a reoccurring theme for most situations that the standard operational procedure involves Aoelin searching a door for traps, listening at it, and then if required unlocking it before Azgoth bashes it in loudly.  This sequence of events resulted in the party finding the nest of a large hunting spider in the tower which was dealt with quickly and again with no major injuries.  The party moved from the tower towards the remains of the building, which had some noticeable holes in its walls and a few long narrow windows.  Pyron proceeded to the far right to look into a window and spied a large snake which caused him to fly into a rage (his hatred of snakes causes this at times) and charge into the building through a number of intervening rooms which were thankfully largely empty.  The snake itself did not offer a difficult battle and the party explored the remainder of the outer part of the first floor with only quick encounters (a giant tick, a giant lizard, and a swarm of rats).  A stairway to a basement level was discovered near the rats and a newer looking door in the furthest back corner as well.  Overall, the keep was in even worse shape than originally thought and had clearly been picked through numerous times. 

Aoelin listening at the back door heard some hushed noises on the other side, but this did not stop the dwarf rushing in.  The party discovered a small group of bandits and dew to some good positioning, a sleep spell, and lucky rolling (a number of critical were made) defeated them without much damage.  The dwarf dismembered the fallen bandits mandibles causing a bit of the schism within the party as the thief and ranger largely didn’t care and the wizard and cleric wanted nothing to do with it.  A secret door was discovered by Aoelin with a twisting stairway leading down.  Questing the two remaining bandits who were taken prisoner resulted in little knowledge – apparently the bandits were operating independently, had only been there a few weeks or months, and did not work with demihumans (this was checked through Eurreal’s ability to sense lies and his helm of telepathy).  One of the two bandits was basically a farm boy who had had some hard time and was trying to make a living.  Attempts to recruit him as an underling were quickly squashed when he say the bloody state of the dwarf and his former companions.  Eventually the two were allowed to leave, though with no equipment of any kind.  The party decided to head down the secret staircase to the basement level.

In the basement level a small chamber with secret doors on either side was discovered.  The party headed though the western door and found a room with an ogre in it.  A quick combat where both the dwarf and fighter/thief criticaled meant the ogre was dead before landing a solid blow.  A side chamber off this room was found to be a jail cell with a  few merchants in it and a badly injured gnome.  Relemyr set the gnome free and talked with him some while the party freed the other two merchants.  The gnome was from an enclave near the Earthspur Mountains and for his assistance gave Relemyr a ring of gnome friendship.  The three former prisoners were given some equipment to help them on their way and pointed in the proper direction back to Homlet. <This is where the first session ended>

The second session picked up as the paladin Argo showed up looking for the group as the former prisoners were shown the way home.  The party headed back into the basement level and continued to the west into a larger jail and torture area that had a large group (about 12) zombies spread throughout the cells.  The fight took a bit longer but again only minor injuries were suffered by the party.  The area also had the steps which lead up (near the rats from the first floor).  Pyron accidentally dislodged some green slime as he looked at them and was almost devoured by the slow moving but gelatinous monsters.  The party ended up burning down a good chunk of the steps to remove the green slime which worked but made visibility in the room somewhat poor.  Two small side chambers were found to be armories, freshly stocked, and with multiple cloaks with the symbol of a green eye upon them.  Aoelin and Pyron took samples of the insignia for later use.  In a column off the room with the torture equipment Aoelin discovered a secret passage with spiral steps leading down to a narrow corridor.  The party edged their way along this and ended up in a crypt…which was currently inhabited by a band of ghouls.  The fight was brutal and could have ended badly as the first to enter the room were all human and quickly paralyzed by the ghouls attacks.  They were eventually defeated and the party took a short break and used their remaining spells to heal.  An exit led out to what appeared to be a zigzag and then T intersection to the east.  A second exit was found in a sepulcher which appeared to be roughly dug out by the ghouls.  A quick look down each did not discover anything else of note.  The party retreated back to the entrance of the basement level and decided to head east through the other secret door next to the stairway they had used to descend originally. 

*Sessions 1 and 2 were played fairly close to each other in time and have been included as a single post for that reason. 

**As a further note, this chronicler has been informed that more accurately Pyron’s weapons are Bashy for the Mace, Slashy for the sword, and Stabby is his dagger and must apologize for the previous error in reporting. 

This will be a play log of a game ran by one of my co-workers in my department set in a modified Forgotten Realms using the 2nd edition AD&D rules set (mostly). The DM grew up playing a hybrid version of 1st and 2nd editions and often references rules from those sets as well. At my urging, we have codified some of the house rules to allow for something similar to attacks of opportunity, a friendlier version of movement in combat, and a slightly modified version of ranged combat into melee – following 3.X style gameplay sort of.

All of the players (and the DM) are graduate students in the anthropology department and range in play experience from being the first time they have played any form of a fantasy game, to playing video games, to having loosely run games with friends the better part of ten years ago. We did a ‘trial’ game to start going through the upper levels of the Forbidden City pyramid but deciding to cut our loses and leave the lost city to Zorgon, at least for now. As such, we have a couple of characters at third level, one at second, and a couple at first.

Much of the Forgotten Realms is the same, but much has changed as well. The previous game module took place in the Anauroch Desert, but with the backstory significantly altered to match the module. I know it would fit more directly into Mulhorand, but the DM decided against this more traditional route and rewrote the Netherese connection completely. Procampur is the major access of power in Impiltur having been recently conquered by a totalitarian dictator. This has caused the other large cities to fragment into competing city states along the southern and western coasts. The Keep, Nolb, and Homlet are being set in northwestern Impiltur in the region north of the Vast and the game will be starting with the party arriving in Homlet after a month of down time and travel. The area has seen significant turmoil in the last generation with the rise of the Temple of Elemental Evil and its subsequent defeat, some say massacre, by an allied force of humans and possibly dwarves from the Earthspur Mountains. Since then the land has seen little in the way of control or mediation until recently. In the last year representatives of the Church of Thoth and Horus have set up a new temple in the region trying to expand their influence. Similarly, former adventurers were sent from Procampur to settle and pacify the region and given some funding to build a keep and hire a mercenary/guard force. These two newcomer groups are in subtle competition with the village elder who is well past his prime and a local druid who serves as a healer and member on the village council. There is a large presence of dwarves in the distant Earthspur Mountains, but they rarely leave their halls and are generally hostile to intrusions. In the past few months there has been an increase in bandits and brigands on the road and some are questioning if the force behind the Elemental Evil is back. Into this mess, the party is venturing forth largely unaware of the situation.

The party consists of the following:

Relemyr: An elven mage bent on finishing a thesis to add to the great library at Evereska. He is the only child of a prominent family of gem merchant and frankly a little bit rich, spoiled, haughty, and occasionally racist towards dwarves and humans…but what else would you expect from a high elf? He is strongly opposed to evil acts despite this and takes a dim view on torture, lying, and unprovoked slaughter. Due to good rolling and racial adjustments he has an intelligence of 20. (High Elf Wizard – Air Specialty, 3rd level)

Argo: He is a human paladin who grew up as a fisherman before joining the knighthood. He has opted to work on backstory as the character progresses but wanted to play a fairly generic knight based loosely on the Templar order but worships Tyr. This player only shows up infrequently and will not factor heavily into play. (Human Paliden of Tyr, 1st level)

Azgoth: Is a dwarven fighter who specializes in fighting with an axe. He is rather barbaric, enjoys alcohol and a good fight, and laughs often though he talks little. He has a fetish for collecting mandibles from the things he kills and plans someday to string a necklace or head adornment with the mandibles of his greatest foes. He is somewhat psychotic and borders on downright evil. (Dwarf Fighter, 2nd level)

Pyron: Is a half-elven ranger who hates snakes, so much so that they are his favored enemy. He is most comfortable in temperate woodlands though he now has some experience in desert survival as well. He refers to his weapons as ‘Bashy’ and ‘Stabby’ wielding a light mace and a longsword, but often spends the first round of melee firing with a longbow before engaging directly. (Half-elf Ranger, 3rd level)

Aoelin: He is an elven fighter/thief with an ungodly strength of 18/high%. Though he is the dedicated searcher and trap spotter this means he is also one of the parties primarily front rank fighters. He is a new addition to the party who met up with them after their desert adventure. He is traveling to Homlet to seek out his father who is believed to have died in the attack on the temple some twenty or so years in the past. (Elven Fighter/Thief 1st/1st)

Eurreal: An NPC cleric of the god Thoth who wields a longsword and shield and walks around in platemail. As the dedicated heal-bot he often doesn’t interact unless prompted. His ability to detect falsehood at will has been magnified with a magical item that was found in the temple – a Helm of Telepathy. This has given the party a definite edge in some social situations despite not generally having a social based character in the group. (NPC Human Cleric of Thoth, 3rd level)

The party scouted early in the morning before the operation and prepped everything. Intel shows that the hellknights in Westcrown have pushed their weight around and pulled some strings to take responsibility for Arael. He’s not that high profile of a prisoner, so they will be using this as a training exercise for new recruits. This will be headed up by a sponsor named Shanwen, he is a cleric of Asmodeus. So, it turns out a prison transfer to Citadel Rivad is the most opportune time to free him. Janiven laid the cards out on the table and the PCs discussed their options. The Children of Westcrown is not to be seen as murderers or vandals. So, Janiven has only 2 requests: not to destroy public property (roads / bridges) and not to kill the guards.

The plan was formed: Group 1 will act as a bait on horseback. Made up of Children of Westcrown NPCs, their goal is to separate the higher ranked hellknight riders from the low ranking foot sloggers. There is a section of the road where the tree line has grown close to the road on both sides, that is where Group 2 - consisting of Gorvega, Solomon, and Malaky - will be hiding in cover. Their job is to spring the trap and make a roadblock with precut trees in the area - held in place by rope that when cut, should fall to the road. Group 3 (Kiyara, Zumoriev, and Linanesh) will be a distraction to try to slow the knights down so that the trap has a larger window of success. This group will pose as travellers taking a rest on the side of the road. If everything goes as planned the PCs should be able to hit the prison carriage right after riders leave and be able to keep it from heading back to Westcrown.

But these things never go ‘exactly’ as planned, do they?

It seemed like everything was falling into place, Kiyara is using her fascination bard song as the group draws near. With the driver as the target he seems to be entranced, the horses keep walking but the carriage does seem to be slowing down considerably. When the hellknights reach the trap point, the Bait - posing as bandits - ride their horses onto the road ahead as if to make a blockade. Shanwen - curious as to why the group has slowed down - sees the bandits ahead and orders the riders forward. The armigers take defensive formation as driver snaps out of his fascination he beings to turn the carriage. This is where things get weird. Malaky - possibly blaming his poor timing on his lack of road vision or a miscue from Solomon - pulls the trigger early and cuts his rope. Springing the trap before all of the riders have left the area. 2 of the 4 had sped off already. Kiyara attempts a bluff and shrieks as the tree hits the ground, but fails as Shanwen climbs to the top of the prison carriage and says “she must have something to do with this”. The other trees land in place, Kiyara bolts for the woods with a couple guards close behind. Zumoriev throws down entangle and I fail ride checks on the horseback hellknights that were left behind - which throws them off horseback knocking them both out on impact. (yay.)

The next couple rounds are Kiyara fighting with hellknights in the woods, Shanwen mounting a large crossbow bolted to the roof and firing at her and anything else that moves - strikes no one. Solomon, Zumoriev, and Malaky wrestle with the entangle like most of the guards but manage to get into the fray. Gorvega - who was positioned on the same side as Kiyara - tries to protect her by tossing in a well placed Cause Fear and some Ray of Frosts but not without taking a couple wounds herself. Solomon swings his earth crusher in a rage and kills 2 of the guards - by accident - which is becoming a theme for him. The men and wolf battle their way through the entangle and guards with the intention of pulling Shanwen from the crossbow. Zumoriev stops at the carriage horses and attempts to break their bonds and free them of hellknight service - he fails. The ladies drop the hellknights in the woods. Kiyara goes back to the road to see if she can free Arael - who is locked up and unconscious. Gorvega has other plans, she didn’t much like the pain the hellknights caused and decides she’s going to offer these men to the dark lord. I’m just going to come out and say it, I’ve never seen someone cast bleed before. She was more than happy to spitefully look upon these men as their stabilized bodies tragically begin to bleed out. “Bleeeeeed” she says as she walks around laying her half-orc hand on their chest - which stops moving when the breathing stops. Lets hear it for necromancers.

The battle comes to a finish as Solomon and Malaky drag Shanwen off of the large mounted crossbow. He fights to the finish and does not yield, they end his life swiftly and - for at least a little while - forget that he might have the key to the cell. Kiyara attempts to work the lock a couple times, but doesn’t want to risk busting it. I believe it was Malaky that was rummaging through the unconscious - or dead - that reminded the group Shanwen may have had the key all along. They grab the key and loot a few other things including a letter that was sent from the Mayor Arvanxi himself, asking for assistance with some bandits calling themselves the Bastards of Erebus. Arael is released, they wake him to explain who they are and that they don’t have a lot of time. The stronger party members start moving the blockage out of the way to not inconvenience future travelers and flee from the scene before there is any further commotion. Sticking to the plan, they will meet up back in Westcrown at the abandoned church hideout.

Upon return they split up to do various tasks, but reconvene to find that the baiting party was able to make it back safely. Arael suggests that they lay low for a while. He explains the city of Westcrown will likely chalk it up to a bandit attack. Since he was released to Citadel Rivad the hellknights will be personally responsible for looking for him and since they are probably going to be doubling their efforts against bandits, Arael should slip between the cracks. He’s right - word gets around that the hellknights were shamed on the road. Politically they are slapped on the hand for not taking better care of protecting the road and instead getting caught up in witch hunts. Somehow, word in the shadows gets around that there is a group of people who are looking out for Westcrown and that they are responsible, but nobody knows how that rumor got started..

PCs earn a Fame Point for saving Arael, but not 1 for doing it without killing hellknights. Score 1 point - but not 2 - for the 'not good' guys. : P

   The party escapes from the tavern, and gathers in the sewers near the ladder. Janiven rummages through some loose stones and says “aha!, I knew I hid these for a good reason”. She fetches a pouch containing cure light wound flasks - a couple for each of them. Morosino begins trekking through the tunnels and finds the 1st fork. He explains that Arael had scouted the sewers out previously in case there was ever a need for an escape like this. He points out where to look for arrow markings so the group doesn’t get lost and that it should lead them to the hideout. Zumry notices there is some loose boards leaning against the wall and discovers that there is a passage leading in a different direction. Although dark, a couple members of the party decide to investigate, and come running back out when they realize they’ve stumbled onto shriekers. The ear piercing shriek continues for a while and they begin to move quicker as the sound seems to have attracted the attention torch bearing humanoids from further in the sewers. 

   In the chaos of being chased and getting away from the screaming they end up taking some off paths. Somehow, they were separated from Janiven and Morosino. The sewers are only 10’ wide with 5’ being the sewage trench and other 5’ being mostly dry pathways. It does smell pretty bad but its actually not as terrible as they originally imagined. It turns out that Westcrown’s sewers is actually decently maintained. Above ground, the hellknights haven’t given up. They’ve assigned the lowest rankings of their men to enter the sewers at different locations in an effort to corner and drag the party out to be jailed and questioned. The group does have some tough encounters with them and has some trouble with combat in such cramped quarters. Afterwards, they manage to get turned around a couple times after some combat and also dead end at different outflows to the sea.

   There is a goblin camp that they stumble on, in a crossroads of tunnels with a decent amount of space to fight. Knowing they are still being chased, they think to make a stand here. The party tries to deal with the goblins with enough time to spare and end up dealing with both threats simultaneously when the hellknights have caught up. Andre the Giant tries to convince them that fleeing would be the best course of action but proving to be stubborn they fight it out, some of them wading through sewage (Ernest: "eeeeeeew”) to get better positioning in combat. When they’ve finished the last of them, the looting begins. The unconscious guards won’t be needing their potions or weapons anymore, right? The goblins were executed with no effort, (barbarians just do that much damage) it wasn’t intentional but they were probably going to be a nuisance anyway. They are able to find their way - not stopping this time when noticing a different hidden passage (lesson learned?). Once above ground, there standing in front of them is an abandoned church. The sun is setting soon, it won’t be long until the shadow beasts stalk the streets. 

   I thought Paizo wrote a pretty decent hook here for the story, the party could do whatever they wanted but it was very likely they wouldn’t hold their ground at Vizio’s. Also, when they designed the sewers there was no map. Just random tiles that you could reuse. Its meant to be a an unnavigable sewer system where the party members keep getting turned around and finding markings rubbed off and stumbling to find the next legible bearing. They give you a bunch of possible encounters and tell you to run them until they run out of potions or get hurt bad enough that you don’t think they can handle another encounter. Miraculously at that point, they will have found their exit. We did get in the (Archer:) “Danger Zone” a couple times but the real factor was that we ran out of time.

   When the group arrives at the old abandoned church, they notice that it is all boarded up but it looks as though people have been going in and out of the boarded up door anyway. Eventually one of the party members knocks (which was honestly minutes of them standing in the alleyway deciding what to do) and with hesitation Morosino opens the door. He ushers them inside, Janiven tells Zumry and Malaky (the ones playing in the sewage) that there is room in the back where they can bathe and change into fresh clothes. As they look around the abandoned church they find it actually is pretty well kept. There is a dozen or so people arguing in a larger room about what they should call themselves. Meet the Children of Westcrown. This is a group of people who have banded together because they want to make changes to their way of life. The problem is, they don’t know how. When the adventurers make there way into the room, the CoW are awe struck. They do want to hear stories of what happened, if they’re ok, did they fight with any hellknights? The party was tired and didn’t really have it in them to talk much about it, preferring to rest up. Janiven lets them stay the night if its too late for them to make it home in time. When she gets any more news as to the whereabouts and plans for Arael she will let them know.

   I partly ran the next chapter from out of state on facebook. It is mostly made up of meeting all of the new NPCs (there is a dozen of them or so). It didn’t necessarily need to be a group thing, so we took downtime and let players meet and approach any NPCs they’d like to get to know individually. Particularly Kiyara wants to get to know Amaya, an NPC who is a glassblower but seems to have a knack for performance. Amaya recognized Kiyara immediately, and was very receptive to any knowledge that could be imparted. During this time, Malaky was training with Mathalyn and Ermolos. Zumry was getting to know an aspiring druid named Vitti and Solomon had taken Rizzardo under his wing. Also during the downtime, they get to meet one of the other players!

   Enter, Nadia Detti. Nadia has already been working with the Children of Westcrown to some extent. Whereas Arael is a cleric and worshipper of Aroden, Nadia is a cleric and worshipper of Asmodeus. This has caused a little bit of a strain on the CoW having 2 religious views, but Arael knows that they live in a different time. He had to set the example that people of the 2 religions can still live peacefully in one country. Nadia is part of a well known family that maintains one of Asmodeus churches. She has siblings both part of the hellknight order and part of the clergy. She is an herbalist and is crafty as well, but her job currently is a scribe. She assists in the remastered tellings of “Infernal” Cheliax and making sure that all copies are written factual and accurate as dictated by government which is essentially Asmodeus’ will.

   The original party (excluding Andre’ and Kiyara) return during this downtime to assist with odd jobs. Without any news or direction, they decide to go back into the sewers bringing Nadia along to retrace their steps and repaint some of the faded directions. While down there the party finds that more goblins have gathered at the original camp, they have a stack of hellknight bodies (obviously the goblins murdered the poor unconscious knights) in a corner and they seem to be racing torbles (beetle like ooze bugs). The party catches them off guard and dispatches them quickly, being sure to loot any valuables to repurpose for training equipment.

   Some members of the group had heard about a cult that used to meet in the sewers to conduct rituals but it was mostly an old wives tale. It may just be the best explanation for the undead they also encountered during their maintenance work. This was an excuse for me to teach them what damage reduction was: enter the Zombies and Skeletons (whoops, looks like we have a shortage of proper weapon types)! Only a couple people dropped, thank goodness nobody died.

   There was one last encounter they had while down in the sewers. Zumoriev never forgot about the hidden passage that they originally decided against exploring. He offered that maybe this would be a good time to explore that area. It turns out there was a maintenance tunnel in that direction that opened up into builder’s quarters. Now, these passages have long been abandoned from the workers that originally used them during the sewer construction but it looks as though they’ve been used in some other manner. When they explore around they find a room that is well decorated, and is likely inhabited by someone with good taste. There are works of art, tapestries, and shelves of books. It feels like they were being watched, but they couldn’t put their finger on it. Some of the players get a bad feeling but it doesn’t stop some of them from snooping around. A low rumble (almost like a growl) coming from out of nowhere fills the room as they get too close to the objects in the room. Nadia decides to be the diplomat and asks aloud if there be followers of Asmodeus in the room and to be not afraid. This is met with a blunt strike of great force that knocks her clear across the room, into the wall, and unconscious. The last thing she remembers is being whacked with something that felt like the size of a tree on her chest. Zumry picks her up and advises the group leave (they seem less curious now). Erring on the side of caution they back off - easy does it - with their new friend’s body and leave the sewers in one piece.

   When Nadia awakens, Janiven hears their story and tells them about someone - some.. thing - that lives down in the sewers. She’s never met him but he runs The Spectrum - an information agency that utilizes the sewer tunnels. He goes by Prism and he doesn’t stay in one place long. It is likely that he will find a new place to run his agents but it was interesting for them to discover his hideout by chance. She asks if they saw him but they did not, she tells them that it was rumored nobody has seen him. They are lucky to be alive. Back to business. She has information on Arael, they’re going to move him soon. the Children of Westcrown have a couple days to come up with a plan, she wants to meet with them the next day and go over some options.

Alright, so you guys know about the shadow beasts: check. We’ve also covered the player character introductions: check. The next topic I’d like to go over: Hellknights! With a name like that, Paizo makes them sound evil as shit - some of them are. Honestly, they’re more on the lawful side of the spectrum than good or evil. They want results and they don’t care about morality. Having an order of hellknights around is pretty common place, but in Westcrown they are a real pain in the ass.

Luckily, Citadel Rivad (from where the regional hellknights operate) isn’t within city walls or anything. The streets of Westcrown host a particular order: The Order of the Rack. These book burners are basically in charge of keeping history’s records straight to prevent free thinking and also it is in their jurisdiction to root out rebellions. They do tend to be a bit overzealous and definitely take things to the next level - especially when it is unnecessary. Believe it or not, Cheliax actually rewrites - I mean clarifies - their history every 3 months. It is up to the Order of the Rack to grab all of the old copies from anywhere they are distributed and gather them at Citadel Rivad for the “clarity pyre”. Every season gets to be book burning season!

With that history lesson out of the way, I’d like to bring the focus back to what is going on in the story. Solomon (the barbarian) ends up being the earliest, but not before finding a small park to pray and reflect on his situation. Eventually, some of the others show up and that makes for some interesting moments. See, the players are kind of new - as I’ve mentioned before. Character on character introductions are sometimes awkward, especially if you haven’t played many games like this. I had to use the bathroom really bad so I just said “ok well, we know you guys are all kind of arriving at a decent time so go ahead and describe yourselves and tell each other who is who as if you’re the character”. When I return they are just staring at each other still, almost waiting? It was like going to a school dance - and the girls and the boys are on separate walls. Let me mention this too - they all know each other well outside of the game. So I roll my eyes and I say “ok lets try again”. I decide to do them in order as they arrive.

Malaky has a chip on his shoulder (probably from rolling a low height). He intends to be intimidating as he enters the bar with Solomon being his 1st target (and rolls low).  Nobody is intimidated - worse yet - given Solomon’s past, he genuinely believes this to be a joke. The player lets out a hearty laugh to best imitate his barbarians reaction - it was pretty good. Andre the Giant shows up a little late and fully introduces himself “Hi, I’m Andre the Giant” - standing at about half a foot less than Solomon - gets another bellowing laugh out of the barbarian player. “These are some funny friends you have invited” knowing clearly that his man is not a giant and obviously this is the funniest joke he has ever heard.

Janiven begins serving dinner a little early although one is running a little late. Zumry notices that she seems worried about something, but she doesn’t fully give in as to why when he asks. She partly dismisses the inquiry, claiming it is the shadow beasts that have made her nervous. The group continues to chat and Solomon is having the time of his life. Clearly he has met some kind of comedy troupe, because they have just been so entertaining. When Kiyara arrives most of the group is in awe - she’s kind of a big deal. Andre recognized her immediately and tries to make idle chit chat, mentioning how much he loves her performances. She is skeptical - given his less than noble appearance - and tests him as to which shows he has attended. He starts fumbling with the truth and ends up giving her the name he saw on a poster - one for which hasn’t ran yet. She decides not to tell him she knows he’s lying, smiles, and enjoys her dinner. At some point when dinner slows and conversation dies down, Janiven sighs and begins her pitch:

“Again, thank you for agreeing to meet with me here. I have
chosen each of you for a singular reason—everyone here,
myself included, has suffered, whether we realize it or not.
I have lived in Westcrown my whole life, and although I love
this city, I must admit, as must you, that despite our peace
and prosperity, we continue to suffer. Fear should not be
an expected part of life, and yet each night brings fear to
our doorsteps. Yes, Westcrown has been safe from war and
famine for nearly seventy years, and yes, our businesses has
prospered—but this safety and prosperity has been bought
in the coinage of fear and prayers to Hell. Other lands live
free from tyranny. Other cities do not fear the night. Other
governments do not cede the streets to monsters of the
infernal shadows. Westcrown was once such a place, and she
wants to be such a place again. Westcrown is not only her
buildings and canals and docks and history—she is also her
people. Westcrown is our friends and neighbors, our mothers
and fathers, our siblings and cousins, our sons and daughters!
With but a small group of supporters and dedicated brothers
and sisters, we can earn the trust and admiration of those
people. A Westcrown free of these shadowy beasts that stalk
our streets is one step closer to a Westcrown free of the devil
that is the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune!”

::crickets:: ::annoying slurp from bottom of glass:: ::cough::

This - of course - sounds like a rebellion to the characters. Some of them are a little put back - remember the party is mostly either evil or neutral - I mean, you don’t talk like that around evil people. Some of them seemed ok with it..? They may not like the way things are ran in Westcrown, but “what’s wrong with praying to hell?” Even though their agendas don’t entirely match up, it looks like they’re going to get involved. They don’t have a lot of time to agree or disagree, because soon after her announcement a young man comes bursting through the door. Morosino is his name, Janiven runs over to find out what is the matter. “They got him, they caught Arael.” Janiven curses under her breath and dares a peek out of the door. Morosino was followed.

She locks the door, has help from stronger characters to block the entrances. Ranged characters take to 2nd floor for tactical advantage. Although Vizio’s tavern has been out of business for some time - being used in secret for this meeting - Andre finds some stashed alcohol and begins to put together a couple of a molotov coctails. The players looking out from their vantage point see their threat: 12-16 armigers of hellknights to march right up their ass. Janiven yells “there’s no time to talk about it, if you care to live come with me”. Behind the bar there is a trap door leading to a basement. Andre’ hurls the lit flasks, intending to stop their advance with a burning building. Everyone passes through the basement and into a secret doorway leading into the sewers. They’ve heard stories of what lurks in the sewers of Westcrown. Now we’ll see how true they are...

For this entry, I thought I would take some extra time and talk about some interesting points in Westcrown’s history and what sets it apart. Things that make for a special place to have a game setting. Following that, I will introduce the cast as in game.

Westcrown was a very prominent city in Golarion. It used to be the capital city of Cheliax; the capital is now Egorian which sits more inland up the Adivian River. The change in capital is important to note because it marks the result of a bloody civil war that had taken place. In short after a god named Aroden/Eraden died (there seems to be 2 spellings), the country went into a spin and House Thrune came out smelling like a rose. When House Thrune took power, Westcrown was forever changed. Now a crumbling shadow of its former self, it is plagued with political mismanagement and crime. I can’t find much info about Cheliax prior to the fall of Aroden, but I’d like to think it was Lawful Neutral like him or Lawful Good like his greatest servant, Iomedae. Cheliax is now Lawful Evil and misunderstood throughout Golarion - I imagine in the most interesting ways.

Then, of course, there is the shadow beasts. I like to call them Westcrown’s “curfew”. See, when the sun goes down, people stay in their homes. The moment the sun’s light has disappeared from the sky, the shadow beasts begin to stalk the streets. It’s not some old wives’ tale or something to scare people into being obedient. There is literally a weekly death toll from people being out too late and getting caught in the streets by a shadow beast. So the “nightlife” is nearly non-existent and everything feels backwards. Crime is high in the day and low at night. People attend parties and check out the theatre in the early afternoon. There are some areas that stay well lit - reserved for only the highest of class.

This whole shadow beast thing has spawned all sorts of conspiracy theory. Some people will even sympathize with them; claiming that at least the streets aren’t riddled with thugs in the night or who knows what things the shadow beasts protect us from. It is generally regarded as a nuisance but what are the people to do? Too poor to move, maybe too proud. At any rate, this can’t go on forever. If you’re a believer in the good gods, you can’t accept it the way it is. And if you’re a follower of Asmodeus, you might say House Thrune is responsible and has gone too far. Surely this is not what Asmodeus has intended for the law abiding citizens of Infernal Cheliax... or is it?

Now as I said before, we have a cast leaning to the evil side of neutral. Although, the AP {adventure path} basically says the group can be of any shape, size, or alignment, it really felt like it was geared towards a group being generally good aligned. So one challenge that has been surprisingly fun to overcome is playing the cast so that they can be Evil-ish and yet want to go along with the story hooks. We have to shed from our minds the fairy tale version of what is good and evil. Instead, we looked at the things that an evil person might value - things that are similar to a good person’s goals and ambitions, but with a twist. Also, they can travel a different path to get there. Using the traits listed in the book, I was able to get the results I desired.

Cast:    Zumoriev - Wolf Shaman / Human - his wolf companion Linanesh
           Kiyara -  Chelish Diva / Kitsune
           Andre "the Giant" - Fighter / Half Elf
           Malaky - Brawler / Tiefling
           Gorvega - Tattooed Sorceress / Half Orc - her owl familiar Mr. Hoot-hoot
           Solomon -  Barbarian / Human


           
Janiven's day starts with a full agenda. She has been doing her best to hold together a group calling themselves the Children of Westcrown with a half elven man named Arael. Together, they have aspirations of a friendlier and safer Westcrown - one where the citizens might be able to walk the streets at night. However, they want to take their ideas to the next level. Currently, their band of deed doers aren't exactly hero material. Don't get me wrong; these people mean well for their city and they'd die for it. They just don't know if it would make a difference. Janiven has had her eyes on a list of people her gut tells her would rally under the idea of a brighter, better future for Westcrown. They all may have their own reasons, but she's been keeping tabs on them and is certain that they will sympathize. Her plan: to meet with them each personally and invite them to a dinner, more or less a meet and greet. She will tell them about how she's organizing a community watch in efforts to try to make Westcrown a safer place. If they would like to help out - great. If they decide to part ways - that is their choice. At the very least, there will be a warm meal and hopefully, in good company.

She finds Zumoriev training Linanesh. He lives in a re-outfitted stable in which he runs his business. Zumoriev lives near a western exit of the city and takes on jobs dealing with stray domestic animals and even wildlife that has found its way into Westcrown from time to time. Zumry (for short) has an interesting demeanor - claiming to have been raised in the wild. He is very empathetic to animals and nature. Janiven appeals to his discomfort with the shadow beasts that stalk the streets at night. There are many theories as to where they come from or how to deal with them. However, Zumry believes they are being used in the city against their will and he would like to get to the bottom of it. He will attend and will leave Linanesh at home.

Janiven pulls a few strings to get backstage before a rehearsal with Kiyara on violin. Kiyara mistakes her for the replacement piano player - the latter was chased out last week. She berates Janiven for being late; coming dressed inappropriately and orders that she report to wardrobe at once. (I was not prepared to be utterly blasted from the player when this scene took place -  shame on me. She was treated to a surprised and apologetic Janiven immediately.) Janiven does the best she can to calm her and explains the situation. She appeals to Kiyara's nature to take charge of a situation and inspire by explaining why she needs her help. If she isn't interested after the meeting, that would be fine. She hopes it will at least be considered. Kiyara realizes the fame of being involved with a successful effort to make a better city and tells Janiven she will listen to what she has to say at the meeting. Shortly after Janiven leaves, the new piano player arrives and gets an earful, but keeps his job for another day.

Gorvega - the very attractive and healthy half orc - works on the docks and is not hard to find. She's used to being approached by men while she works, but the docks are hardly a place where one might be approached by a woman. She listens to Janiven's offer and accepts, because she too has had enough of the injustices that plague Westcrown. People shouldn't have to be disciplined so harshly in the streets. When the Order of the Rack walks by, citizens shouldn’t have to close the shutters. There are many problems in Westcrown that seem to have gotten out of hand. There is a time and place to practice the law and the people shouldn't fear it, they should embrace it. One thing I thought was funny about the half orc situation: when the player was deciding on a race, she had read that orcs were kind of treated like 2nd class citizens - Which at 1st discouraged her a little bit. Then she read that in Westcrown and in Cheliax as a whole, Half Orcs are nearly top notch in comparison when living in a city that hosts Tieflings - the actual bottom of the barrel accepted race. Which brings us to:

Malaky works for one of the few noble families that still reside in Westcrown. It is run more like a crime ring. His job is to collect and it hasn't been going very well. It just so happens that the people are poor; how can you collect from nothing? His Tiefling heritage doesn't count for much in life. Even though he lives in Cheliax, it is no different. When successful, he's treated like a dog. Those days are few and far between, so normally he is treated as much worse. When Janiven finds him, he just took the last cent from a sobbing man that has nothing left to give. Once turned into his employers, he was treated to no pay for this week due to performance - and that he's lucky to have purpose working for such a noble family. Janiven explains to him that there has got to be a better way for him to use his talents and he agrees to attend the meeting so that maybe he could use the situation for monetary gain. Also, he wouldn't have eaten dinner that night so this solves that problem.

Andre "the Giant"(Actually, I’d like to make a note here - We had a very special guest in town while we commenced our 1st session. Instead of creating a character, he picked one out of the book’s pre-generated characters. Changing his name, he spun out a backstory and current situation immediately.) Andre is not a very large half elf. Actually, he's very average. Abandoned by his followers when Janiven locates him - she may have mis-read his strengths. He was in “his” alleyway conducting “his” business - a middleman in the drug traffic world but not taken very seriously. She knows that he is a product of society and an accomplished crafter of alchemy. She believes he is misguided and wants to give him the opportunity to have a second chance - the chance to do something with his life before he goes too far down that path. He shrugs and says he'll round up his posse to be at dinner. He does his best to persuade me to use his Perception to track his posse. In the interest of time, I tell him that “in the alley he is standing, he successfully used perception to find none of his followers”. Therefore, goes to the meet alone.

Solomon is a fresh off the boat barbarian. He has been taking odd jobs as a mercenary for hire. Work has come pretty steady due to the violent nature of some choice parts of town and he is good at “those” jobs. He doesn't seem to fit in very well though - after all, these aren't the plains. Anywhere is better than enslaved. He’s just had to learn the hard way about customs in Westcrown. Things like: not praying in public to gods of chaotic or good nature. This was not the city he meant to flee to, but it will work for now. When he had heard of Cheliax before, he heard of demon and human alike fornicating in the street, carving their bodies to find pleasure in pain, and sacrificing themselves to strange deities. Since he arrived, those have all been embellishments. The crime is high in the day and the punishments are severe. The people here seem to want to get by just fine with as normal of a life as possible. Janiven knows the group needs muscle and intends to hire Solomon on to fill the gaps. He accepts.

Everyone in the cast from this point spends their day naturally until the meeting - which was set early in the afternoon - at a place called Vizio's Tavern (somehow we made it through without constant LED tv puns). The meet will be set early enough so that people attending will not have to rush home at night - when the shadow beasts lurk in the darkness...

-Richard

   Recently (in the last year), I reconnected with some old friends of mine. Among other things we’ve been filling our time with, they have involved me in some excellent role playing games. In that time I think it was fresh for most of us to try out some of Paizo’s adventure paths, and it was impressive enough that I thought I would introduce some local new players to Pathfinder. Majority of this group of players has played 1 or no tabletop role playing games and 2 others are well versed but have never used Pathfinder ruleset at all. These players are trying classes they’ve not played - to be fair. This is also the 1st prewritten game for all of the above. I thought it would be interesting / fascinating to tell the story of new blood.. in Cheliax.

   I gathered them into a group on facebook - and after reading some opinions on which of the adventure paths is recommended for new players. I made a poll showing 3 types of adventures and gave a small description for each one. Unanimously, the urban adventure involving curses and corruption and interesting politics got up voted. I personally secretly wanted to see this one in action after reading about it - did not expect the players would pick it over the others. Asmodeus' will be done, off to Westcrown we go. 

   I think at this point it should be mentioned our group only had 3 players. This was including the player who had never played any role playing game of this nature. That wasn’t going to be enough new blood, Asmodeus demands more. I asked them to invite people who they thought would fit in best and then *poof* there were 6. A little large of a group, I admit. However, I felt that having new players will help balance. Also as I had read the path, I found that it is not necessary to have the same people present for each chapter.

   Very well then. I provided everyone in the group with the free PDF that Paizo supplies as a player’s guide and immediately the players are asking questions about what they can be and would it be ok if I did this or that? May I be a Tiefling? Yes you may. We are off to a good start, I put some music together using tracks from the Chrono Cross OST (bonus points if any Chrono Cross fans know which songs I've used) that I felt were appropriate. This is a first for me to use music but after experiencing it recently in other games I do feel adds to the ambiance. Then encouraged everyone to really read the traits section of the PDF as these were character defining traits and will help you mold into their part.

   It is off to purchase ability scores and before you know it, we have 1 newer player who wants to play a Half Orc Sorceress - tattoed no less. Takes a penalty on Int (only -1 mod) to upgrade other stats during the point buy and assumes that anything under 0 modifier qualifies as being retarded. I tried to convince her that wasn’t exactly the case but she was hell bent on portraying her character that way at 1st, so be it. Apparently "those titties ain’t retarded" because having a high charisma score prompts another player to sketch her as quite sexy - for a half orc (as we say). I’ve got one player that wants to play a Chelish Diva (bard) Kitsune with a father complex, but is actually kind of a local celebrity and one player who wants to play as a 'raised in the wilderness' Wolf Shaman (druid) - both of those took variations of neutral and the Sorceress who picked up Undead as their bloodline said “fuck it, I want to be evil, take me Asmodeus”. *facepalm* She also was eyeing an upgraded familiar feat for later levels to get a severed head (yes tattooed sorcerers get familiars) but for now she settled on “Mr. Hoot-hoot” (owl) that lives in her bosom. To quote her again "finger of death, motherfucker!" was her inspiration to go Necro. Lawful Evil.

   Most of these characters were made individually, with nearly no communication between players as to what they were planning, so it was an interesting surprise that one of the players wanted to be a cleric. After reading the PDF and some Wiki pages she decided she didn’t want to be some whiney goodie-two-shoes cleric, oh no, she wanted to be an -Evil- cleric, and worship Asmodeus. The synergies between an undead bloodline sorc and an evil cleric (they high five upon this news of similar tastes when notified) are definitely there but won’t seem to come to fruition for some time. We shall see what the players come up with. This player has never played before and has astounded us time and again with her zeal for being a worshiper of Asmodeus and correcting/informing the other players in and out of game that they are in “Infernal” Cheliax not just Cheliax. Lawful Evil.

   Also part of the line-up is the beef, 2 other newer players (1 game beneath their belt) a player that wants to play as a tiefling torn between what people think he is and what he wants to be. He goes Chaotic Neutral, not quite giving in to his heritage. The tiefling will be a fighter arch type called Brawler which he thought would be fun, armed with punching daggers. The next character is a Barbarian - should be noted that he is the only character with “Good” in his alignment. Went with Earth Breaker as his weapon of choice and has decided to go up the Spirit Totem after making his character - seeing that everyone is leaning evil - he thought that being thematic it would be cool to release negative energy as an aura when he’s enraged but that he’s generally good natured when he’s not. Fair enough.

   In the next post I will formally introduce the characters by name as they start the 1st book of Council of Thieves titled: Bastards of Erebus and how they fall into place.

                                                                                                                                                                   -Richard