Introduction

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 11  – Flumin’ Heck!

The party staked out the Flume, waiting for the would-be arsonists to appear. Sure enough, as night mist descended over the land, Corny the Cleric spotted a figure in the haze. Unfortunately, he was smoking his pipe weed and the short flash from the bowl gave his hidden position away. Corny shook Gunnar awake as a creature padded forth, but not fast enough to avoid the blazing flame that leapt forth from its gullet. The Hell Hound continued to attack, eventually knocking Corny unconscious. Lob, the Goblin Alchemist, managed to pour a potion of healing into Corny’s mouth before rolling away to safety. Eventually, the Hell Hound was killed by Gunnar the Fighter, who then turned his attention to a Bugbear and another Hell Hound that were attempting to burn the flume further to the north.

Gunnar managed to intimidate the bugbear into surrendering, but the Hell Hound took Ezren the wizard out (must have been all those annoying Rays of Frost he was using, or perhaps it was his aftershave). Eventually, Gunnar cleanly severed its head. The party discovered the bugbear had been hired by some dwarves called the Leadbuster Lads who gave him the Hell Hounds to assist with the arson. Unfortunately, he didn’t know there they were from or where to find them – they were to contact him once the flume was destroyed.

The party called it a night and headed into town, taking a room at the Rowdy Rockfish (much to the innkeeper’s annoyance, as the hour was late). The next morning, they dropped the bugbear off at the local garrison, explaining his part in the arson attacks. The foreman of the flume rewarded them with a magical axe for their troubles.

Time for some shopping: selling items in the marketplace, buying a bag of holding from Morlibint at Odd Stories (who asked the party to look out for any unusual books on their travels), and finding out Olorio Gallentine of Gallentine Deliveries was looking for someone to do some dangerous deliveries for her.

The party elected to head back to their fishing camp base to install the locks they’d bought a day ago. When they arrived, they discovered two Ogre Warriors looking for a new lair. The battle that followed was brief but vicious – one of the Orges fell through the main building’s wall (Ezren’s language reflected what he thought of that). The party rested for a few days, repaired the wall, installed the locks and Lob tried to backward engineer an antivenom potion (second time), but failed again. Oh well, two more to go…

Session 12 – Leadballer Laddies!

The party headed back to town to take the delivery job offered by Olorio Gallentine. As they escorted a wagon of supplies to the Ingleholtz lumber camp, they came across an inquisitive and apparently destitute dwarf living by the side of the road. They didn’t fall for his probing questions and headed away to the camp, only to be attacked by a leopard, which grabbed hold of Corny the cleric’s arm. Gunnar the fighter took the creature to task, and as it fell dead, the destitute dwarf charged up, particularly upset about losing his pet. He then commenced beating the crap out of the party, almost taking out Lob and knocking Ezren the wizard unconscious with a mighty blow from his maul. Finally, the dwarf was killed. No prisoners!

Lob the goblin alchemist and Gunnar discovered a ruined castle behind the tree line – a potential base of operations? Rather than investigating further, they prioritized delivery of the goods (as well as burying the dead dwarf a few miles up the road). When the party arrived at the lumber camp, the foreman thanked them and advised they had some trouble with creatures setting fires and attacking lumberjacks.

Suddenly, a bunch of brimstone rats, two hell hounds and two dwarves burst from the trees around the camps and attacked! Ezren summoned a velociraptor to eliminate the rats while the lumberjacks took on the hell hounds. One of the dwarves was a cleric and sent Gunnar running away with a command spell, while the other managed to stick his rapier into Corny’s belly a few times. Luckily, Lob borrowed Corny’s magical dagger and discovered he was quite good at backstabbing people with it. One dwarf down, another to go.

The dwarf cleric proved to be more troublesome with his nifty flaming dagger work, but was eventually dispatched by Gunnar with his flaming sword (does everyone has flaming weapons now?!)

The party were thanked for their help, and one of the dwarfs’ bodies carried a map indicating planned arson attacks around the area, as well as a base of operations in the ruined castle the party had located earlier. These were obviously the Leadballer Laddies, the dwarves the captured bugbear indicated were causing all the local troubles. The party rested for the night, preparing for an assault on Maunder Castle…

Next Week: Maunder Castle!   

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