#RotRL redux

[parasite-core]

Last night in Pathfinder we returned to Rise of the Runelords. Well, two of us returned, while we introduced two new players to Pathfinder and our GM played the beginning of the campaign he joined for the first time at the end.

Once upon a time two fighters, a cleric, and a ranger came together in Sandpoint and became world saving heroes. Now, again, a group of adventurers come together in the sleepy town of Sandpoint during a festival. Whether they will become heroes or a footnote in history is yet to be seen.

@scarlet-the-girl

The campaign unfolded as Sandpoint’s Swallowtail Festival began. Speeches were made—notably one Lonjiku Kaijitsu was absent from the speech he was meant to give, having claimed illness, although many in the crowd believed he was feigning it to get out of making a public appearance. Amongst the crowd were two travelers and two locals—our heroes. First is Tabot, the fresh faced and good willed rabbitfolk paladin of Aroden—a god well known to have died a century ago. He had come from out of town, going where the wind takes him, seeking a place to belong. Next is крыса (pronounced Kyrsa, and I will spell it as such going forward only because my phone cannot type Slavic letters so I would have to copy/paste their name every time). They are a small ratfolk wizard whose entire den was wiped out by a giant and who is now traveling seeking revenge. The two locals are Nanel and Mau Ornelos-Servos. Nanel is a human oracle with an unusual plant pinned to his ragged shirt. He eats people. But his…oddities…have gone unnoticed thus far. And Mau is a catfolk alchemist with a noticeable limp who walks with a cane—which doubles as his weapon as it conceals a blade within.

These four each found themselves at the festival. Nanel, Mau, and Kyrsa all separately made their way to the food stall of one Ameiko Kaijitsu. Tabot played tug of war and won easily with a Herculean show of strength. Ameiko greeted Mau and Nanel as familiar customers, and offered a sample of the fish curry she had made to serve at the Rusty Dragon later. She also told them about an alcoholic concoction she had brewed up. Mau took the challenge, stating that he was keen on ‘concoctions’. Nanel and Kyrsa followed suit. Mau drank the mixture down without flinching—he’d done worse to himself with his own alchemy. Nanel and Kyrsa were both a little queasy as the alcohol hit them. Mau chuckled and told Ameiko that it packed quite a punch—to which Ameiko decided to call the concoction Punch, and she offered Mau a jug of it since he’d handled it so well. She asked if any of them felt up for another. Mau accepted, and the other two refused to be outdone by the alchemist so they accepted as well. Mau once again drank it down without batting an eye. Nanel was ready for the alcohol’s kick this time and handled himself much better.

Kyrsa darted off and hurled in the nearby bushes as the alcohol was too much for the poor little rat.

The soon-to-be-heroes milled around some. Tabot made his way to a fencing range for a sword fighting contest. Kyrsa followed Nanel like a baby duckling to a game called Liar’s Dice. Kyrsa had immediately bonded with Nanel—unbeknownst to Nanel—due to Nanel also having trouble with the alcohol initially. Mau went to play a trivia game.

Tabot was given a practice blade by the town sheriff and sent into the ring to face a woman with some skill of her own in fencing. First point went to Tabot as he struck her right out the gate. They were separated, and this time the woman struck first. She did not strike Tabot—but instead disarmed him. Tabot, without considering the consequences, drew his actual blade. The sheriff immediately broke up the fight, told Tabot to get his practice blade, and disqualified him from that round, giving his opponent the point. However, final round Tabot took the woman’s technique and turned it back on her, disarming her and leaving her without a means to strike back. She yielded, giving the victory to the rabbitfolk.

While that was happening, Nanel and Kyrsa were playing dice. Each took a turn trying to trick the others, rolling hidden dice and either revealing the number or bluffing. Nanel won his round, and he also won Kyrsa’s round—calling their bluff. Kyrsa had a comeback, however, and won the house’s round. There was no prize, unfortunately, except bragging rights. Well—no prize officially. While the showman wasn’t paying attention Kyrsa snatched a small pouch off his belt and found themself a bit richer as it was filled with shiny expensive gemstones.

One person did win a prize legitimately, however. Mau found himself at a trivia game, where people had to name the number of residents in Sandpoint. Mau has a good head for numbers and a bit of a counting compulsion, so he gave the exact number. He won a potion of cure light wounds—something he would generally make for himself, but it never hurts to have an extra on hand as he would soon learn.

Tabot and Mau continued milling about the festival.

Kyrsa asked Nanel if this town had a brothel. Nanel just so happened to have been raised in the local brothel so he knew it quite well, and led the way. Nanel spent the next 45 minutes catching up with people while Kyrsa had some…intimate time…with a handsome halfling man with big naturals.

They returned to the festival just in time for Father Zantus to begin his speech, which would lead into a meal.

Or it would have. If he hadn’t been interrupted by the sound of a woman screaming and then many voices chanting:

“Goblins chew and goblins bite,

Goblins cut and goblins fight.

Stab the dog and cut the horse,

Goblins eat and take by force!

Goblins race and goblins jump.

Goblins slash and goblins bump.

Burn the skin and mash the head,

Goblins here and you be dead!

Chase the baby, catch the pup.

Bonk the head to shut it up.

Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed,

We be goblins! You be food!”

Everything descended into chaos as buildings and stalls were set ablaze by dozens of rampaging goblin raiders. Three made their way to where our party awaited, stunned for a moment by the sudden violence that had erupted around them.

Kyrsa reacted first, turning and throwing a spike of ice at the nearest goblin, staggering it. It limped forward, trying to muster up the fortitude to strike at the ratfolk, but couldn’t do anything as it dealt with the magically induced injury.

Nanel stepped up next to Kyrsa and asked them if they could keep a secret. They agreed. Then Nanel lunged forward and attempted to bite the goblin. His jaws closed around nothing but air as the goblin jerked away, but Kyrsa saw sharp inhuman teeth in that mouth.

On the other side of the battle, Mau drew his blade from his cane and took out a flask of a liquid that looked like bottled lava. In the goblin language Mau told the goblins that they were louder than the actual festivities, and to shoo. The goblins replied that since he spoke their tongue they’d cut out his tongue.

Mau took that as all the go ahead he needed to throw the flask. A string attached went taught and then broke a seal between two different liquids within the flask, making it volatile. When it hit the ground between the two goblins, it exploded violently. They leapt out of the way but still flames licked at them.

The two goblins charged in—one at Tabot and one at Mau. Tabot’s managed a small slash across his leg, while Mau’s left a rather nasty cut across his face—trying to make good on his threat.

Kyrsa backed away from the goblin threatening them and pulled out an alternate means of attack—a crossbow.

The goblin lunged at Nanel. But then Nanel stepped back, and with everyone but Kyrsa distracted with their own fights, he shot out a storm of thorns which punctured and killed the goblin that was attacking him, and also brutally injured the one attacking Tabot.

Mau turned and struck down the goblin that had attacked Tabot—having made a quick judgement call on which to attack based on it appearing more injured than the other. His attention to detail paid off, at he sliced straight through the goblin, leaving only one more in this particular batch.

The goblin struck Mau, leaving him bloodied, but it was his final act as Tabot stepped in and finished him cleanly.

There was no respite to be had, however, as the party heard more chanting and laughing and turned to see four more goblins setting a wagon on fire. One was the source of the chanting.

Once again Kyrsa acted most quickly, turning and trying to hypnotize the chanting goblin. Unfortunately he was too wrapped up in his chanting to be affected by their attempts to enthrall his mind.

Nanel dove under the nearby stage so no one would be able to see as he let his patron, Donyoku, take over, becoming a being of vines and a snapping maw.

Mau limped towards the fighting, and as he did he pulled out a vividly green concoction, which he downed. The mutagen caused him to take on lion-like features, becoming larger and stronger than before. He took a stand next to the stage, facing the goblins with blade at the ready—unaware of Donyoku beneath the stage mere feet from him.

Tabot charged forward and took a swing at the nearest goblin, striking it down.

Kyrsa decided to forego magic and instead aimed their crossbow at the chanting goblin. They landed a devastating blow against him.

Two of the goblins ran for the stage, having seen Nanel dive under it. One crawled under, saw Donyoku, and yelled that he was going to ‘kill it with fire’.

The goblin in question got eaten by the plant moments later. Mau heard disturbing eating noises coming from below the stage but had no idea what might be going on down there.

Instead he worried about the problem at hand, and stepped forward to meet the second goblin lingering near the stage, striking him down with a well-placed strike.

All that was left was the goblin who had been chanting. His chanting fell silent as he ran out of stamina to continue his bardic performance.

Tabot stepped forward and swung at the goblin, but swung wide over the smaller combatant.

Donyoku flew out from beneath the stage, pushing past Tabot with an ‘out of the way, pretty boy’. He attempted to chomp down on the goblin, but his vicious teeth clamped down on nothing but air as the goblin dodged again.

Mau made his way around to the other side and tried to strike the goblin down, to equally ineffective results. Kyrsa’s bolt shot true, however, leaving the goblin bleeding badly but still standing. After another ineffective bite from Donyoku, Mau decided the traditional method they were using was clearly not working, so it would be insane to just keep swinging his sword and hope it would work this time.

Instead he stepped back, and produced another explosive. The goblin had conveniently stepped back into the bushes, leaving a relatively clear shot for the alchemist to throw his bomb—only Donyoku would have to avoid the backlash, and quite frankly Mau didn’t know what that plant thing was, or if it was actually a friendly or just conveniently fighting the same creatures for now.

He threw the bomb right in the goblin’s face and the goblin ignited, leaving little of his body and nothing of his head remaining.

Father Zantus gathered our group together. He thanked us and called us heroes—The Heroes of Sandpoint he named us—and he offered his healing prowess before we returned to the fray, as we could still hear the sounds of violence elsewhere. We agreed, and he channeled positive energy enough to top us all off.

Kyrsa told the party that they heard something approaching from one of the roads leading to the square. We prepared ourselves for another fight. Mau handed over two potions of Cure Light Wounds to his current allies, one to Nanel (who had stealthily returned to normal and slipped back into the group, claiming he’d been attacked under the stage) and one to Tabot, as they were the ones who had taken the most punishment last fight.

Not long after we took our positions a nobleman and his dog ran for their lives from more goblins. He introduced himself as Aldern Foxglove, then said he was going to hide while we took care of these nasty things.

Chasing him were two more goblins on foot and a goblin commando atop a goblin dog mount.

Kyrsa opened the fight shooting a bolt at the rider, but it shot wide.

The goblin commando and his mount rushed in and brought Nanel low, knocking the oracle unconscious.

Tabot darted in and used his own potion of Cure Light Wounds to heal Nanel, awakening his unusual new ally.

One of the regular goblins ran at Kyrsa and landed a dangerous strike against the ratfolk, leaving them bloodied and looking a breath away from toppling over.

Mau hurled a bomb at one of the goblins on foot who was menacing Nanel on the ground. The bomb shot wide, but this may have been a boon as the radius of the explosion caught both the goblin he’d been aiming at and the mounted commando.

Kyrsa stepped away from the goblin attacking them, dodging around his blade and getting farther away to cast mage armor on themself. The goblin hassling them lunged forward with killing intent—but their blade clanked off the newly summoned mage armor harmlessly.

The commando and his mount split their attacks between Nanel and Tabot. Nanel was looking like he was on his last legs. Nanel tossed him his own potion of Cure Light Wounds, calling over ‘trade you!’, since Tabot had used his own on the oracle moments before. Then, while Tabot was distracted catching the potion, Nanel turned and bit off the goblin commando’s head, leaving his mount riderless.

Mau turned, and seeing the precarious situation Kyrsa was in, he left Nanel and Tabot to finish dealing with the goblin dog and made his way over to help the ratfolk. He swung in with his blade, delivering a devastating blow against the goblin, although not the killing blow. However now he had the goblin’s attention, giving Kyrsa some breathing room.

Tabot was barely hanging onto consciousness. He heard a voice in the back of his head telling him it wasn’t yet his time, and to make the wise decision.

Despite the voice encouraging him to take a moment to heal, Tabot attacked, striking at the goblin dog. A moment later Nanel finished it off with his quarterstaff.

Nanel then made a beeline for where Mau was fighting the last goblin while Tabot drank his potion, causing the voice to sound relieved before fading away.

When Nanel came up behind the goblin, Mau requested his assistance. Nanel agreed, and slung his quarterstaff around the goblin’s neck. Mau skewered the goblin—with enough fine control of the blade to not send it through Nanel as well.

The streets grew quiet, the sounds of chanting and violence finally fading away, only the lingering roar of the still burning fires in the distance breaking the sudden emptiness in the air.

Over the next few hours, as clean up began, the party were hailed as heroes—Father Zantus’ title for us, The Heroes of Sandpoint, getting around. Ameiko told us anyone who would like could stay at her inn for free for the next week while we figured out where we were going from here. Tabot and Kyrsa immediately agreed, as travelers with no other lodging, as did Nanel, whose normal living conditions were…not great. Mau didn’t intend to join them, as he was more of a solitary person and he had a home of his own to return to, but he did assure Ameiko he would still drop by for a visit, and maybe another drink.

The party split up for a bit, going about their business in town. Tabot went straight to the inn and met the tavern’s maid, a halfling woman named Bethana Corwin, who was holding down the fort until Ameiko got back. She showed Tabot to his room, which was a good sized room with two beds even though he only needed the one. Tabot asked her if she could give him a smaller room, with the intention being that this room would then be available for the inn to rent out to someone else and they would make more money.

Bethana was taken aback, but she told him she’d talk to Ameiko about it when she got back. Then she asked about the holy symbol emblazoned across Tabot’s tabard—the symbol of Aroden. She noted she hadn’t seen any Aroden worshippers in about a century, most had converted to Iomedae, and pointedly asked him if he was insane. Tabot assured her that he was perfectly sane, and he hoped that soon she would be seeing more worshippers of Aroden again. Bethana said she believed him that he had all his mental faculties, but that made her question just what else she believed.

Nanel and Kyrsa went back to the brothel to check up on everyone there. Everyone had been safe—they had barricaded the doors the moment they heard the commotion, and the fire hadn’t touched their building. Satisfied that his family was safe, Nanel went to his own home to gather his things to go spend a week at the Rusty Dragon. Kyrsa followed. Nanel lived in a small hovel—leaky, dirty, small, and hardly fit for a person to live in. Kyrsa acted as though it was the height of luxury. From their perspective, compared to the dens they’d lived in with their hundreds of family members in tight quarters, this seemed huge and homey.

After Nanel gathered his things, he and Kyrsa made their way to the Rusty Dragon. Again, the halfling maid showed them both their rooms. Kyrsa was intimidated by the side of their room—it was too big and empty. They asked Nanel—while Nanel was pushing the two beds together to make one big bed—if they could sleep with him. He said no, he needed his privacy, but suggested that if they were afraid of sleeping alone, maybe Tabot wouldn’t mind the company.

Kyrsa scurried away and found Tabot. They asked him if they could share a room because their room was too big. Tabot said he felt the same, that the room was too large. Kyrsa wanted to sleep at the foot of Tabot’s bed—not in a separate bed—because they didn’t want to sleep alone. Tabot was taken aback at first, but then agreed, if Kyrsa was fine with Tabot still asking Ameiko for a smaller room since they’d only need the one bed. Kyrsa agreed.

While all this was happening, Mau was selling the excess loot they had taken off the goblins—he had a good head for numbers so he’d felt he’d be best to sell the miscellaneous items and split the funds between them. As he finished the final store he needed to visit, a messenger stopped him. He told Mau that he had some bad news.

Mau’s house had burned down in the attack.

Mau and the messenger made their way to where the alchemist’s home had once stood, Mau in a shell shocked silence. They arrived to find a burnt out husk. The messenger said that they were going to go through and try to find anything that had survived the fire…but it didn’t look hopeful.

As Mau looked over the wreckage of what had been his home, he saw something suspicious. He picked his way into what would have been the interior of the home, and uncovered a wrapped torch deep within the rubble. Not thrown in through smashed glass or set ablaze from the outside, but placed *within* his home.

This wasn’t the behavior of a goblin raiding a city, causing random violence. This had been purposeful.

There was someone else pulling the strings. Someone with a grudge against the alchemist.

But try as he might, Mau couldn’t think of a single enemy he’d ever made.

But he knew one thing for sure—he was determined to find who was behind this and bring them down. And he knew just the allies to help him.

Tabot, Nanel, and Kyrsa came together in the Rusty Dragon, getting some food and drink. As they were talking, Mau entered the establishment with a stormy disposition. He told the others what had happened, and asked if they were planning to look into the goblin attacks further. They asked why they’d be looking into the attacks, and May told them about the evidence he’d found that someone besides the goblins was behind the attack. The others agreed that they would be looking into it in that case. Mau said he had a proposition, then, and offered to get them potions for half the cost they’d get them from the stores, which the others agreed sounded like a good deal.

As they were talking, Sheriff Balor Hemlock entered the inn. He thanked the party for their heroics the other day, and confided in the party that he suspected fowl play. Mau told him that he suspected the same, and told the sheriff what evidence he’d found. The sheriff asked the party to keep this on the down low for now, since we had no suspects yet it could be anyone and we didn’t want them catching wind that we were on their trail. We agreed.

The sheriff then let us know that wasn’t the only troubling news today. Father Zantus was to consecrate the tomb of the previous head priest of the temple, Father Tobyn, but he had noticed that after the attacks the door was ajar. The sheriff had convinced the cleric to stay away from the mausoleum until he could get some adventurers to look into it first and make sure it was safe. Those adventurers were, of course, us.

We agreed, thinking we might find a connection between whatever was happening in the mausoleum and the attack.

The sheriff noted that he knew Mau and Nanel as locals, but he wanted to know more about Tabot and Kyrsa. He asked them what they had travelled to Sandpoint for. Tabot told him that he was just traveling where the road took him, seeking a place where he might belong. Kyrsa bluntly said their entire family was dead, and they were looking to avenge them. The sheriff seemed to feel a bit awkward after that revelation, and left soon after. Not before letting the party know they had free reign to investigate the town—and he’d look the other way for minor transgressions done in the name of helping learn the truth of this attack—but don’t take advantage of his trust, no stealing or murdering or anything like that. Mau assured him that he didn’t believe any of them would do anything of the sort. No one gave Nanel or Kyrsa a second glance, completely unaware of how very wrong Mau was.

An hour later, Ameiko returned. She agreed to give Tabot and Kyrsa a smaller room—after some miscommunication between her and Tabot about his and Kyrsa’s relationship in which Ameiko was almost certainly yanking Talbot’s chain and Talbot kept making things more and more awkward.

The party bedded down for the night and slept soundly—unaware of someone scrying on the four of them somewhere far off.

The next day, Mau got up early, prepared his extracts, and then left the inn before the others got up. He wandered around town until he got close to the area where his house had been, then he downed a Disguise Self extract, and began asking around about if anyone had seen anyone suspicious around there that day or during the goblin attack.

Most people gave him little to go off of—everyone wanted to talk about the Heroes of Sandpoint but no one had any useful information about Mau’s burnt home. Until one man told him that he’d seen a cloaked figure surrounded by six goblin, and he could have sworn he saw the figure go into Mau’s house—although things were so chaotic who’s to say what really happened? Maybe it was Mau himself being chased by goblins?

Mau, of course, knew this not to be the case. So he had his first lead, vague as it was. It was definite proof that there was someone in league with the goblins, who had targeted him for some reason.

Mau returned to the inn not long after the others had gotten up and were eating breakfast. He joined them and told them what he’d learned.

The party agreed that their first priority should be looking into whatever was going on in the mausoleum. So they went to the temple of Desna, spoke to Father Zantus and Sheriff Hemlock, and then they approached the open mausoleum. They saw footprints leading into the crypt—one set human sized and six sets goblinoid, exactly the same as had been described to Mau in his investigation. Mau approached the open door, cautious but not hearing or seeing anything.

Until it was too late.

Two skeletons sprang from around the corner, both stabbing Mau, leaving him struggling to keep his footing as his blood spilled down his front.

Kyrsa sprang into action, shooting the one they could see most clearly with a magic missile. Unfortunately, it remained standing, if just barely. It was held together by negative energy and malice.

Both skeletons lunged at Mau again with swords and claws—and the cat alchemist crumpled in a heap at their feet, bleeding out.

Tabot darted forward, went through Mau’s pockets, and fetched a Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds he’d known the alchemist had taken off the last goblins they’d faced. As he poured the liquid into his mouth, his hand glowed, and the healing potion seemed exceptionally effective. All of Mau’s wounds closed as if they’d never been there, and his eyes flickered open, returning to consciousness.

Nanel moved past Tabot and Mau, taking it as the skeletons swung blades at him, and then he turned and tried to bludgeon the nearest skeleton—but his swing went wide.

The skeletons now had more than one target. One continued trying to remove all of Mau’s blood, while the other turned its blade on Nanel.

Nanel fell.

Mau determined that he needed to take these skeletons out NOW. So he took a gamble, recklessly scrambled to his feet—leaving himself open to attacks from both skeletons, but they both scraped against his armor rather than striking true, then he leapt backwards, pulled out a bomb, and threw it directly in the middle of the two skeletons. Both were caught in the edges of the blast, and were blown apart.

The party took a moment to catch their breath. They searched the tomb and found a used up Cloak of Bones. They also found Father Tobyn’s coffin—empty.

As the party reconvened with Sheriff Hemlock, Kyrsa voiced a troubling truth.

The attack had been a diversion. The real goal was something else entirely.