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 34 – Unchain My Heart

Moving through the door, the party discovered an eerie corridor, with stairs at either end and strange (but harmless) blue energy cascading randomly through the walls and floor. As they climbed the west stair they came to a door.

Going through, Gunnar the fighter found a huge shrine with a round altar. The wall murals were images of Nimbhaloth, Outer god of despair, ghosts and swamps. As Gunnar stepped into the room, he was overcome with fear. Skeletal hands moved on the altar, and glowing blue flickerwhisps rose to attack. Corny the cleric and Lob the goblin alchemist entered the room, Corny steeling himself against the overwhelming sense of despair pervading the chamber, but Lob falling victim to the fear. Ezren the wizard cast fireball from the corridor and took out most of the crawling claws, but the flickerwhisps were unaffected. His other spells were also useless against them. Corny remembered the flickerwhisps were vulnerable to light, and blasted one to pieces. Gunnar leapt onto the altar despite his fear, slashing at the creatures. Lob’s acid and thunderstone bombs helped to wipe out the rest of the flickerwhisps.

Corny checked the altar thoroughly. He realized this must be the altar Otari’s ghost mentioned. Ezren overcame the room’s fear and used his spyglass to observe a ghostly wall blocking the stairs to the south. The party coordinated with Carman (who held his ancestor’s sword) and placed the Roseguard’s artifacts they had collected on the altar. The ghostly wall faded away, turning the corridor dark.

Carman elected to leave, taking his sword. He informed Gunnar he would go to the smuggler’s cave to hide until the heat blew over, then return to town.

The Otari 2600’s decided to take the door across the room rather than head down the south corridor and downstairs to the lower levels. Corny listened at the door then opened it. Inside was an ancient torture chamber, filled with manacles, chains and suspended cages.

A blue Evangelist Velstrac asked him to leave. When he didn’t, it animated chains on the walls and impaled the cleric against the wall. Corny called for a retreat, but Gunnar rushed in to confront the fiend. Ezrin summoned a Hippogriff to get Gunnar out, but the big fighter wouldn’t back down. Lob tossed acid bombs, was hit by chains a few times. As the to and fro continued, Gunnar attempted to force the Velstrac out of the room and into the shrine, where it wouldn’t be able to access the wall chains. It realized his plan and tumbled past him and back into a corner, where it continued to bombard the fighter with chain attacks. Gunnar went down, as Corny and Lob faced the Velstrac with Ezren’s Hippogriff…                     

Session 35 – The Void Calls to Thee

The fight against the Velstrac didn’t go well. Before exiting the room, Corny the cleric healed Gunnar the unconscious fighter, who got to his feet and ran out, grabbing and carrying Lob the goblin alchemist as he passed. Out in the shrine room, Ezren the wizard shut the door as they exited, with Corny applying a magical lock to keep the Velstrac inside. Gunnar waited by the door, his body wracked with fear and pain. Lob tried to assist with Gunnar’s bleeding, and eventually the big fighter’s wounds were staunched.

Ezren retreated to the south corridor to take cover at the corner, but as he did two Cairn Wights burst from their sarcophagi in niches nearby and attacked. Ezren fled, and Lob took the brunt of the undead attacks, the wights slowly draining his life force. Eventually Corny and Gunnar dispatched the undead with spell and sword.

After checking some of the other sarcophagi along the corridor walls (just dead bodies, but all savagely killed based on their wounds), the party headed back to the door they had used to enter the shrine, back into the corridor and stairwells humming with discordant blue energy. As they made their way up endless stairs and landings, Corny discovered an alcove. Piercing the illusionary veil, Gunnar led the way into a living room, where he witnessed an after-image of Belcorra chatting with Volluk Azrinae, the drow from the painting they had found earlier. As the image faded the others entered, with Ezren explaining the magic of this place must hold lingering memories of past events.

Lob checked a door to the next room for traps, but as he did darkness welled up from beneath, filling the room. Everyone was blinded by the sudden shift. The door creaked open. Lob felt razor-sharp claws slice open his chest, knocking him unconscious. A swirling, glowing Voidglutton appeared in the doorway, the only visible thing in the room. Gunnar stumbled forward to attack, but to no avail. Corny and Ezren’s spells failed against the creature. Fear infected all those struck by the Voidglutton. It was decided discretion was the better part of valor and the party made a quick exit, with Lob being revived and led through the darkness by Corny.

Gunnar was stuck to the wall by the creature’s ectoplasm as the others fled. He was eviscerated numerous times, revived by Corny from a distance, then knocked unconscious again by the Voidglutton. “Now I have a new toy to play with,” it hissed, dragging his body back into the darkened room.

As the others caught up with Lob, the goblin asked where Gunnar was. “He’s gone, he’s dead,” said Corny, feeling guilty for assuming the big fighter had no chance of survival. The party ran onto the stone platform where they had fought the werewolf about a week ago, breathing heavily, all resources spent. All felt guilty about deserting their friend. All discussed returning to rescue Gunnar, with Ezren and Corny identifying the creature and its weaknesses. A plan was forming…

Disconsolate, the party rested fitfully – some with guilt-plagued dreams, others with fear…