Stuff my Pathfinder gaming group says in the Reign of Winter game I’m running.
Book 5: Rasputin Must Die, the party is looking for the corpse of the guy they need to find and bring back from the dead now that they’ve fetched his soul. (Well, “fetched” might be an understatement.)
Zenith (Centaur): “He must be the key to undoing this whole thing. Seems pretty careless to just leave his body lying around somewhere, though.”
Amon (Abadar Cleric): “I don’t know about careless. They shoved the guy’s soul into an undead goat. Seems pretty thorough to me.”
That feel when you've got a new tabletop character in the works but not sure what her outfit will be. (For Reign of Winter path) #doodles #pathfinder #reignofwinter #tabletoprpg #karmadaarts
On Thursday nights for roughly the last year or so, my wife and have gotten together with 2 other couples to play Pathfinder. Like most RP groups, it's largely an excuse to have dinner together and catch up once a week, but we're pretty good about getting some gaming in as well.
Up until this point, our friend Brugge had been GMing for us, but I decided when our last campaign kind of fizzled out due to scheduling conflicts around the holidays that I should give him a break and take over GMing duties for a while. I decided to run the Reign of Winter adventure path, due to my love of Russian settings and its decidedly weird sense of humor. I thought it might be fun to do write-ups of the campaign to let others get a sense of what our role-playing group is like. I'm going to keep information that is secret to my players secret to the reader as well, as I imagine my players will want to read this and don't want to ruin any surprises.
Cast of Characters
-Anastasiya (played by Kelly) - LN Aasimar Oracle
Anastasiya was granted the power of prophecy by the fates, but at the cost of her sight. She had a vision that all of the party members had a shared destiny that she knew started in the small, quiet town of Heldren. She left her home to fulfill that vision, finding the party members along the way and convincing them to join her in her quest.
Anastasiya is tough, but fair. She has 4 rules:
1.Follow your destiny.
2. Nobody dies unnecessarily.
3. Don't question the rules.
4. Don't break the rules.
-Aylwyn Uvaroite (played by Jesse) - CG Dwarf Barbarian
Aylwyn left her mountain home to find her fortune, as so many dwarves do. She worked as a guide, helping travelers traverse dangerous pathways. She met up with Sture Shadowwalker and decided to temporarily team up. Eventually the duo met Anastasiya and have decided for the time being to see where her vision leads. She hopes to someday be able to retire off of her fortune from adventuring and start a family.
-Sture Shadowwalker (played by Ray) - NG Fetchling Archer (Fighter archetype)
Sture was searching for new markets to sell his wares when he met up with Aylwyn. The two formed an alliance of convenience until they met up with Anastasiya, and are now following her in hopes that her vision includes prosperity for them.
-Shannon (played by Keri) - CN Human Rogue
Shannon was working as a rogue for hire before she met up with Anastasiya and the rest of the group. Despite the mercenary nature of her work, she is often motivated to help the less fortunate, especially if it means a large payday for her off of some fat cat's coin. Intrigued by the shared destiny Anastasiya says they have, she has temporarily allied herself with the party to see where the path leads.
-Zarkut Hom El Faris Haptan Khalimed (played by Brugge) – CN Gnome Alchemist
Zarkut is the gnomish pursuit of knowledge personified. Borderline obsessed with new experiences, Zarkut can be very off-putting with his strange requests and bizarre behavior. He's very proud of the fact that he was voted the best rodgerer and best rodgeree in his village's rodgering games, and utterly fails to understand why most people are extremely disturbed by this story. Zarkut is fascinated by the strange and powerful members of the party, and is very interested as to what discoveries the party will be able to make together.
Session 1 - The Journey Begins
A small trade caravan approaches the sleepy burg of Heldren. It carries a party of adventures, brought together by a prophecy of shared fate. They have been travelling together a short while and have used this opportunity to get to know each other. They've even grown accustomed to Zarkut's strange requests for hair or personal items, although they still don't like it. They don't know what they will find in this town, but the vision that brought them together indicated that this is where their journey would begin.
As the caravan pulls into town, Gerd, the caravan driver, is beset by his excitable friend Juergen. He recounts a strange tale of what has occurred in the town during Gerd's absence - unseasonably cold weather has broken out near the Border Wood, with hunters also reporting the presence of strange creatures not native to the woods. Just the day before, a badly wounded soldier had stumbled into town claiming to be a bodyguard of Lady Argentea Malasseene. He claimed her caravan had been attacked and that she had been kidnapped.
While the party didn't trust everything the overly enthusiastic Juergen had to say, they decided to track down Juln Oerstag, the wounded soldier. Upon finding him in rough shape at the apothecary, they proceeded to ask him what happened. He recounted the tale of the battle and drew them a rough map of where they had been attacked. Prior to leaving town, the party decided to equip themselves with cold weather gear, as Juln was suffering from severe frostbite.
The trip south was uneventful, but something strange was indeed occurring with the weather. There were no visible signs of fall, such as changing leaves, but the temperature plummeted the further south they went.
Eventually, the reached the site of the attack. They searched a broken carriage and found little of value. They found one of the other bodyguards encased in ice with limbs severed from his body; he seemed to be left as a warning to any who would follow.
The doors of an intact carriage were wedged shut. Sounds of scratching could be heard behing the doors. Zarkut, curious as always, opened the doors to see what was inside. Much to his dismay, 2 zombies emerged from the carriage and attacked the party!
Zarkut quickly rolled under the carriage and threw a bomb at the zombies. The explosion was impressive, but seemed to phase the zombies little. Sture attempted to shoot one of the zombies with an arrow, but the snowy conditions obscured his vision and caused him to miss. Then Aylwyn took a mighty swing and cleaved one of the zombies in two!
Sensing an opportunity to end the battle quickly, Shannon tried to stab the remaining zombie but missed the mark. Anastasyia cast a spell on Sture to improve his accuracy in the harsh weather.. Zarkut darted out from under the cart and stabbed the remaining zombie, but the zombie seemed barely hurt. Finally, Aylwyn had had enough and dealt the killing blow to the remaining zombie.
The danger thwarted, the party examined the carriage. Shannon discovered a small treasure box, which the party decided to salvage and return to Lady Argentea. While continuing on their journey, Sture noticed that Zarkut was struggling with the deep snow and build him a sled.
The party came upon a chest, and everyone quickly noticed that it was an obvious log trap...except for Aylwyn. Luckily, the party clued her in before she could set off the trap. Shannon was tasked with disarming the trap, with Sture and Zarkut offering assistance. Unfortunately, too many cooks spoiled the soup, and the trap was inadvertently set off! However, everyone managed to get out of the way of the log.
The ill-gotten gains of the bandits were stashed under the decoy chest. The party took the useful items - a masterwork dagger for Shannon, a masterwork chain shirt for Aylwyn, a light crossbow and bolt for Zarkut, and a light wooden shield for Sture - and left the remaining items due to weight concerns.
Conclusion
I feel like this session went really well. I have very limited experience GMing, but there weren't any major questions I didn't have the answer to, and the combat and skill checks ran smoothly. A good role-playing dynamic seems to be developing, which is especially nice considering that our group has sometimes struggled with that element of Pathfinder. I look forward to running the next session greatly.
Thanks for reading this entry! Please let me know what you liked or disliked about it; since this is intended to be an ongoing series, your feedback is crucial to make sure I'm making my readers happy. Until next time, keep slinging those dice!
