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 started playing PF2e, we commenced with the Beginner’s Box, progressed to Troubles in Otari and then to the Abomination Vaults campaign. The players, calling themselves the “Otari 2600s” (it’s amusing if you’re old enough to remember lol), are still currently playing the campaign every Sunday night!

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).

Steve 🙂

Warning: These summaries contain spoilers for Paizo’s Abomination Vaults campaign

Session 27 – Otari Interlude

Refreshed from their sleep, the party headed into town to deposit their load of books with Morlibint at the Odd Stories shop. The wizard was very interested in the haul, advising that he would assess the books and come up with an offer for the collection tomorrow.

The Otari 2600s walked to Menhemes Manor, where they met Mayor Oseph Menhemes and his wife. The mayor thanked them for the great service they had provided Otari over the past few months, gave them a 100 GP reward for their work in the graveyard and apologized for not having met them sooner. Menhemes explained his link to the Roseguard who defeated Belcorra over 500 years ago – he was a direct descendent of the party’s cleric. While the party’s rogue, Otari Ilvashti, died in that battle, the fighter and wizard survived, and their descendants also now lived in town.

Oseph was concerned the party’s recent actions in the Gauntlight Dungeon may have prompted the beam attack. Corny the cleric and Gunnar the fighter staunchly defended the party, advising the danger had been growing for some time, and that the party would seek it out and stop it.

Gunnar and Lob, the goblin alchemist, sold Gunnar’s breastplate and original shield at Blades for Glades. Carman Rajani, the surly proprietor and descendent of the Roseguard’s fighter, offered Gunnar some work in his forge if he had the time.

Corny and Ezren the wizard headed to the Dawnflower Library, where Vandy Bandersnatch provided some information about Otari, the sorceress Belcorra Haruvex and the Roseguard’s role in defeating her and building the town of Otari. She advised little information was known about Belcorra, other than she built the Gauntlight Castle, lighthouse and dungeons – perhaps the party might find more information on her below Gauntlight.

The party continued on to the market, where they managed to sell much of the treasure they had collected in the week or so since they entered Gauntlight. Afterwards, they bought some fish and chips to go from the Crooks Nook tavern, and headed back to the ruins as the sun set. Ezren was very keen to collect more magic items and set up his own magic crafting business (GP signs were flashing in his eyes). Lob reminded him they still needed to adventure to find said magic items for Ezren to reverse engineer.

After walking through the forest and fogfen, the Otari 2600s entered Gauntlight castle. Lob spoke to the Mitflit Boss Skawng, advising the party was back to clear the dungeons. Ezren suggested the goblin provide Skawng with the Bird Feather Token they’d found so the mitflit could communicate with them below if anything went awry on the surface.

Heading downstairs, the party discovered a meeting room beside the secret room they’d discovered earlier. Another secret door led to the ex-morlock’s lair. The team walked through the empty dungeon to the one place they had not explored – a cavern filled with water. Ezren used Edgar, his raven familiar, to scout the opposite bank, where a number of boats lay. As the raven returned, his leg was bitten off by a crocodile-like snout bursting from the waters.

Ezren fed an Everburning torch on a rope to check the depth of the water (about 10 ft. deep), but it was snatched by the creature. Quickly handing the rope to the stronger Gunnar, the fighter was dragged underwater, coming face to face with a dragon-like beast…          

Session 28 – Deeper…

After Gunnar was sprayed with acid, Corny the cleric blasted the River Drake with a divine lance and Gunnar ran his sword through its mouth, killing it. Gunnar surfaced, somewhat miffed at Ezren the wizard for passing the buck, as it were.

Lob, the goblin alchemist, swam across to the other shore and found several boats, including the rowboat used by the thieves the party freed from the Morlocks. The others crossed as well, and discovered several empty caves attached to rooms they had previously fought Morlocks in. The wizard sent Poe, his raven (who didst protest much) to scout ahead.

The Otari 2600s discovered another inert teleportation room. Ezren realized there must be some kind of ritual to reactivate the various teleports – perhaps in the library below? Gunnar eventually discovered a new stairway down.

Lob entered a room and met an undead Morlock called Augrael. Once the morlock was informed that the morlocks above (whom he called the “Ghost Queen morlocks”) were dead and the ghouls (whom he referred to as the “Cult of Canker”) had been dispatched, he left for a midnight snack.

The party followed, discovering a room haunted by a mysterious eye in the wall. Gunnar and Corny were frightened by the apparition, and Gunnar’s attacks were futile. Corny worked out a way to ignore it, and they all left. Gunnar chalked a warning on the door to prevent others from making the same mistake.

The door immediately opposite opened to reveal the strange green light the party had encountered previously. Ghostly words appeared on the wall – “Belcorra fell to the Roseguard, but we never knew of these vaults below” – then changed into a light trail which the party followed, taking them through the library and to a set of stairs leading down.

At the bottom of the stairs was a huge cavern with a lake and long stone pavilion rising above it. A hairy and unkempt man and his pet wolf sat by a fire, and immediately demanded the party leave. Gunnar ran past and jumped off the pavilion into the water, wading onto the nearby shore and chasing the glowing light. As it headed south into another cavern, he realized splitting the party wasn’t such a good idea.

Corny and Lob entered the cavern, causing the man to morph into a hybrid wolf. Ezren, not far behind, recognized the man as Jaul Mezmin, the wolf creature who had killed the wife of Keelano Lathenar, owner of the Otari Market. Ezren’s sleep spell was effective on the wolf for a moment, but Jaul quickly woke it up again.

Jaul blasted the party with a lightning bolt, then created a wall of thorns. His wolf attacked Corny and knocked him prone, then unconscious. Lob had leapt into the water below, but climbed one of the column supports and fed a healing potion to the downed cleric. The wolf turned its attention to the goblin.

Meanwhile Ezren enlarged and hasted Gunnar, who leapt onto the pavilion and straight into the wall of thorns. Jaul cast grease on the area. And the battle raged on…

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