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 17 – Under The Three-Eyed Gaze (Part 3)

Bequian the bard awoke from his slumber in a cave outside the Scar. Finding a note left by Lob the goblin alchemist, along with a darkvision elixir, the bard made his way back to the lair, bypassing the puzzle lock and creeping past charred ogre bodies. He heard the sound of familiar voices from around the corner, approached the slightly ajar door and entered. Inside were Bequian’s comrades, all badly wounded and being treated by Corny the cleric. Gunnar the fighter and Ezren the wizard were in a particularly bad way, Gunnar’s burns proving quite resistant to Corny’s healing prowess and Ezren passed out and snoring.

Over the course of an hour, the party licked and bound its wounds. Lob checked out the torture chamber – obviously the ogres’ lair, based on the smell alone. Various rusted and worn implements of torture adorned the walls and a twenty foot-deep pit dominated the center of the floor. Unfortunately, there was nothing to find. Eventually, the party decided to press on to the north, where two sets of double doors awaited them in the room where they previously fought the owlbears. They left the sleeping Ezren behind, lying behind an upended table.

The owlbear bodies had been removed, with a trail of dried blood leading west and east to the closed doors. Bequian and Lob investigated the east door, which Lob knew led to a storeroom. Both went into a dust-filled room of crates and sheet-covered furniture. As they did, both were taken by surprise as a pseudopod struck out at Bequian from a wooden box and a statuesque gargoyle struck at Lob. Gunnar and Corny charged into the room.

The gargoyle and mimic seemed to work in a coordinated fashion, surrounding Gunnar and knocking him unconscious. Bequian used spirit transfer to bring Gunnar back as life was drained from the bard’s body into the fighter’s. Eventually, the gargoyle was killed, followed by the mimic, as a patented Lob “supersonic slingshot” bullet holed the creature. Searching the room while Corny once again attended to the wounded, Lob found a wooden lockbox with elvish runes, which he slid into his bag of holding.

There was a door to the north, which Lob inspected for traps and then opened with his wand of the mage hand. He checked the short corridor with the invisible mage hand and opened the door at the end, only to be faced with a giant troll. It voiced some words about “the end of the world” and then attacked, its boar ally rushing to assist. The troll was burned severely by Lob’s alchemist’s fire, Gunnar’s flaming sword and Corny’s electric arc spells, and soon was no more. The boar fell soon after as Gunnar put it out of its misery.

Bequian mentioned he was going back to check on Ezren to make sure the wizard was okay. The party forged ahead… 

Session 18 – Under The Three-Eyed Gaze (Part 4)

The party entered the final room of the lair. A raised dais occupied the northern end of the room, on which a rough-hewn altar of stone appeared stained with blood and other liquids. A pair of wooden folding screens stood to either side of the altar, each marked with a painted symbol of a three-eyed jackal. The wall behind the altar had the same icon crudely scrawled on it in red paint. At the edge of the dais, two lit braziers cast fitful light throughout the room. The rest of the chamber looked bare, except for a few tattered mats of varying sizes arranged on the floor in rows. An ogre and a bugbear leaned casually on the altar.

A richly timbral voice came from behind one of the folding screens. “Rhunk, how many times have I told you not to lean on the altar? And in front of guests, no less. Shame, shame.” A large jackal padded out into view, his head held high. Reddish stripes ran across his dark brown fur, saliva dripped from his mouth, and his pointed ears seemed overlarge. A third eye in the center of the jackal’s forehead opened lazily every so often as he talked.

The Kornugian Jackal introduced himself. “I am Mwibah, chosen of Lamashtu. Though I began life as a simple beast, she blessed me with intelligence and incomparable powers to gather her other children here. Your kind has persecuted and slaughtered our kind for far too long. We will overrun your cities and destroy your cultures. Only we will remain to rule over Golarion.” Lob the Goblin Alchemist asked about the previous party that had assaulted the lair, to which Mwibah responded: “Some sort of champions of Sarenrae, I believe? Were they friends of yours? I am sorry, but they are all dead. The Dawnflower chose not to save them.”

After a few minutes of discussion, Mwibah glanced over at his lieutenants and said: “Looks like my friends are growing tired of this talk. Shall we commence? It is what all of us do so well, after all.” 

The jackal fixed its hypnotic stare on Gunnar the fighter, who had been somewhat confused by all the talking and wanted to get on with hitting things. The bugbear and ogre flanked him, striking savagely and eventually knocking him unconscious. The fighter got some solid hits on the ogre first, however, providing an opportunity for Lob to use several electrical bombs and bring it down.

Corny the cleric brought Gunnar back, but the fighter was stuck between the bugbear and the jackal, who used devastating combos to knock Gunnar off his feet and send him back to the darkness. Lob healed the big fighter with a healing potion, but it wasn’t long before the bugbear knocked the goblin out as well. Corny used up all his healing spells, potions and healing wand to bring back Gunnar and Lob back to consciousness, only to have the fighter go down for a third and final time.

As Mwibah slipped past the cleric into the second room, knocking him down and preparing to tear his throat out, Corny let loose a deadly divine lance that sundered the jackal’s skull. As the battered and bleeding jackal stood over Corny’s prostrate form, Lob ran up behind and put a sling stone through the Jackal’s brain. Seeing his master killed, the bugbear fled.

While Corny treated everyone’s wounds, Lob located the Sun Wheel and some other treasures. The party headed out of the lair, picking up Bequian the bard and Ezren the sleeping wizard along the way. Back home to the fishing camp for a well-deserved rest, then back into Otari to present the Sun Wheel and news about the missing Sarenrae cohort to Vandy Banderdash at the Temple of the Dawnflower.

Vandy promised to return the Sun Wheel to the adventurers in a few days once her research was completed. Hailed as heroes once again, a travelling bard from out of town visited, asking the team about their adventures and writing a bardic epic to spread word of their deeds throughout Absolom and Starstone Isle.

The heroes advanced to 5^th level!

Next Week: The Abomination Vaults…     

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