Hi all,

I previously posted some warts-and-all email summaries of the ‘Curse of Strahd’ campaign I ran in 2017-18, the ‘Tomb of Annihilation’ campaign I ran in 2018-19, the ‘Out of the Abyss’, a campaign I ran in 2020, the ‘Phandelver’s Pact’ campaign I ran from 2020-21, and the ‘Shadows over Saltmarsh’ campaign from 2021-22. CoS was the first campaign I sent summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that), which is why I could use them for this column.

Here’s the session summaries from my first Pathfinder 2e campaign which I started running in 2023 after WoTC stunned the TTRPG community by deciding to be dicks about the OGL (remember that?). Like many who progressed to PF2e, we commenced with the Beginner’s Box and progressed to the Abomination Vaults campaign.

I apologize in advance for the writing in these summaries – they’re a bit raw, and not fancy at all (I don’t have time for fancy writing when typing them up at midnight after each game lol). The campaign continues, and we’re still learning as we go!

Steve 🙂

Session 1 – Menace Under Otari…

(First session with lots of housekeeping and rule discussions as everyone learned the new system.)

The heroes assembled to investigate missing stores of fish in the underground warehouse. Heading down the stairs, Valeros the Fighter and Merisiel the Rogue took out several giant rats. Realizing the rats weren’t the ones stealing the fish, the party climbed down a cliff into the caverns below Otari, with Ezren the Wizard using mage hand to move a lightstone around. A giant spider was quickly dispatched in its web-laden lair. Valeros located a nicely made sword and a potion of healing hidden in the webs.

Valeros, emboldened by his easy kills, pulled down a barricade and Merisiel scouted down the corridor to locate a hidden tomb. Cornelius the Cleric managed to blast some of the undead as they rose from their coffins, and Merisiel managed to kill a zombie shambler, but one of the skeletons impaled the rogue with an arrow, knocking her unconscious. Cornelius stabilized her while Ezren and Valoros dispatched the other skeletons.

Searching the room, they party located an everburning torch and a stylish shield.

Session 2 – Menace Under Otari (Part 2)

The heroes moved further into the caverns, passing a ten-foot-high ledge and a set of wooden double doors. Hearing noise in a room further down the tunnel, they opted to bypass the doors and move ahead. Valeros the Fighter rushed in, confronting four kobolds. The party made short work of them. Merisiel the Rogue picked the lock on an iron cage at the back of the room, and Valeros searched the crates and barrels within, discovering rotted food, some treasure and a magic short sword.

Next up, Valeros set off a falling boulder trap in a narrow corridor, but successfully used his shield to block most of the damage. The room beyond contained a statue of Abadar and a puzzle with 9 coins, which the party quickly solved. Listening at the northernmost door, Ezren the Wizard thought he heard some voices. The party entered, but Ezren was surprised by a spear, almost knocking him unconscious. Two kobolds and a Kobold trapmaster fought the party, with Cornelius the Cleric standing in a snare trap and then being knocked unconscious by the trapmaster. Eventually the battle was over. Merisiel identified some other snares at the top of some stairs leading down into the depths, and rolled one of the dead kobolds down to catch all of them. Ezren inspected an egg shell necklace around the trapmaster’s neck, and concluded it was from a green dragon egg. He ventured that perhaps the kobolds were stealing fish to feed a dragon? The party discovered some more treasure in a side room and the workings of a floor trap, but didn’t activate it.

The heroes headed back to the double doors on the ledge. Ezren experienced some difficulty climbing the ten-foot cliff, but eventually they entered a shrine to Gozren. Valeros drank the shrine’s sacred water, healed and, thanks to his iron stomach, gained a charm for an hour. No one else was willing to try. Down the stairs, Valeros entered a guard room and was ambushed by two kobold scouts. As one was killed, the other fled. Valeros encountered it in the next room by a fountain, but accidentally activated a jet-spray water trap. Merisiel managed to disable the trap, but it caused some damage as it continued to spray people around the room. Valeros dispatched the final kobold before it could warn others in the next room. Cornelius discovered a barricade leading to a foul-smelling corridor, but decided to leave it be….  

Session 3 – Menace Under Otari (Part 3)

Merisiel the rogue headed up the north tunnel, coming to a partially water-filled intersection. To the north, a rank smell; to the south, a blue glow. She elected to go south, using a stone with light cast upon it by Ezren the wizard. A room with three globes, each filled with an element; the fourth globe broken on the floor, the water filling the corridor must have been from it.

Ezren joined the rogue and attempted to retrieve the glass shards of the broken globe, and was attacked by a cinder rat that emerged from the fire globe. The others rushed in, and although the cinder rat’s smoke caused some distress, they were able to dispatch it. Ezra investigated the earth globe and was granted a temporary boon. Cornelius the Cleric gained a short flight boon from the air globe. Merisiel and Cornelius treated the wounds of those hurt in the battle, then the rogue moved stealthily north to check out the smelly cavern.

Emerging quietly into the cave, Merisiel was overcome by a foul and rotting stench, but couldn’t see anything. She brought the rest of the party in, and a javelin flew out of the darkness, striking her in the shoulder. Three Xulgaths leaped forward and the battle was on. Both Ezra and Cornelius were knocked unconscious, but Valeros the fighter saved them all.

Merisiel stabilized Cornelius and Ezra, and as soon as they were treated and up and about, the party interrogated a Xulgath that Merisiel had knocked unconscious. Luckily, she could speak its Undercommon language. It revealed it came from the Darklands, deep below the ground, and revealed an alternative path into the kobold lair. Merisiel decided to let the Xulgath go, so it could return to its people. Perhaps, one day, it might return the favor…

The heroes carefully dissembled a hastily built rock wall, identified by the Xulgath as the alternate route, and entered the kobold’s lair – unfortunately their light sources gave them away, and the kobolds were waiting! Despite their preparedness, the kobolds were no match for the party. One of the kobolds surrendered, revealing their leader was a spell wielder and that they had been feeding fish to their pet baby dragon…

(The party are now Level 2.)

Next: Kobolds & Dragons

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