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 are 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, progressed to Troubles in Otari and then 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 late at night after each game lol). The campaign continues, and we’re still learning as we go!

Steve 🙂

Session 9 – Stone the Crows! (Troubles in Otari Part 4)

The party travelled further up the Granary Road, searching for Nuala the centaur. Tall, brambled hedges lined the roadsides, making it difficult to see around curves. Ezren the wizard’s raven familiar flew ahead, squawking as it spotted something standing in the road. Lob the goblin alchemist scouted ahead and saw a statue of a centaur with an angry look on its face. A Basilisk burst through the hedgerow and attacked! Lob managed to avert his gaze as the rest of the party rushed to defend him. Gunnar the Fighter boldly leapt into the fray, only to be slowed by the Basilisk’s stare, then turned to stone! Corny the cleric managed to dispel the magical petrification, then Lob finished off the wounded basilisk with a sling stone to the head.

The delivery satchel was nowhere in sight, but small tracks led into a nearby field, surrounded by hedges. Ezren summoned a dog to sniff out the satchel, but as the dog rounded a hedge at the entry to the field, it was hit by a crossbow bolt; the sound of kobold voices broke the silence. Ezren called to the kobolds to surrender, or he would burn them alive, then set the hedge alight. Gunnar charged into the field, slicing the head off one. A kobold Dragon Mage used its magic to pepper the fighter with magic missiles. Ezren put the two remaining kobolds to sleep.

Lob tied up the kobolds and rescued the satchel – inside were three packages for delivery. The party returned to the road and the fire started to spread along the hedge row and behind the field. The kobolds escaped their bonds and tried to run down the path, but the heroes stood in their way. After appealing to the kobolds to surrender and mend their ways (which the kobolds rejected as they were too worried about the fire behind them), the party dispatched them. Gunnar had a stern chat with Ezren about the moral implications of burning kobolds alive, but Ezren felt he was in the right.

The party discovered one of the packages was for Abanye Nianna, whose house was another hour up the granary road. They delivered the package but found the house in shambles and Abanye trapped in a cupboard by stinkweed shamblers. After a brief battle, the party freed Abanye, who rewarded them with several magic items for their trouble. He cooked them a stew and provided accommodation for the night. Corny and Abanye shared some ‘medicinal herbs’ and brownies, and a good time was had by all.

The party headed back to Otari the next morning, stopping to collect Nuala’s damaged statue and haul it back to town. Oloria Gallentine was most upset to learn of Nuala’s fate, but asked the party to continue delivering the remaining packages. The party did some quick shopping in town (Gunnar buying a new shield and Corny picking up three simple locks and a simple lock formula for the party’s fishing camp base).

Session 10  – Deadly Mushrooms (Troubles in Otari Part 5)

The party delivered the package of rare, spicy peppers to Magilloy the Tengu. Magilloy asked if they could recover some rare copper cap mushrooms from a place called Slab Hill, and that she would pay them with two capsaicin tonics she was making. The party agreed and headed off to deliver the final package to Klorte Hengus, half-orc foreman at the Otari timber flume.

Klorte opened his package to discover a number of pins from various gladiatorial victories in his youth. A friend had collected them and sent them to Klorte as keepsakes. Klorte thanked the party, paid them and then mentioned he had been having trouble with arsonists attacking the flume. The timber flume was used by three companies in Otari to bring their wood to the mill and thence the ocean for delivery, so it was vitally important to the town. Klorte asked the PCs to stake out the flume and stop the arsonists. The party agreed, but decided to collect the mushrooms first because that wouldn’t take much time to do.

Slab Hill was a few miles northeast of Otari and the party arrived as the sun was setting. Unfortunately, the mushrooms had already been picked. A basket lay on the ground near a slab of stone that previously covered the entrance to a barrow in the side of the hill. Lob the goblin alchemist entered cautiously, seeing a carving of a hand with a star on it on the lintel above the inner door. Corny the human cleric identified the symbol as belonging to a vicious warlord who had been buried in the barrow over a hundred years ago.

Gunnar the human fighter moved into the room, and as the party reached the center of the chamber, skeletons formed from bone piles in several alcoves, along with a wight! The wight made short work of Gunnar, with the skeletons a nuisance for the rest of the party. Eventually Corny used a heal spell to decimate the skeletons, but not before Gunnar was drained and brought low by the wight. Eventually the party killed the undead creature, but Gunnar realized it would take some days for him to return to his original strength.   

The next room contained several pillars with star-shaped knives carved into them. Assuming the room was trapped, Lob hugged the wall and made it around to the other side where an open stone door beckoned. Unfortunately, Corny and Ezren, human wizard, decided to walk between the pillars. The starknives glowed and shot off the pillars as knives of force, blasting the two. Lob managed to disable one of the pillars and Corny managed to dispel all the others.

The final chamber contained a sarcophagus and two open coffins containing zombies. A shadow rose through the sarcophagus lid and attacked Gunnar as he entered the room, draining his strength – it really wasn’t his day. He and Corny were knocked unconscious, but Lob valiantly brought them back with potions. After a difficult battle, the zombies were dispatched and Ezren’s magic missiles finished off the shadow. Lob recovered some gemstones and two magic items from the sarcophagus, finding a scared half-orc who had harvested the mushrooms but been dragged into the barrow by the undead. He rewarded the party with the mushrooms he had recovered.

The party returned to Otari, gave Magilloy her mushrooms (receiving their promised reward in return), with Gunnar suggesting the tengu hire the saved half orc to recover mushrooms for her in future. They then healed up and headed off to the flume to start their stakeout…

Next Week: The Fluming Truth!

Check out my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtmf65iCIYu70YP7zaRP-6Q

For more Laidback DM, click here.

For Laidback DM products, visit Drivethrurpg.