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), have now finished the campaign after 85 Sunday night sessions!

I apologize in advance for the writing in these summaries – they’re a bit raw and not fancy at all (I didn’t have time for fancy writing when typing them up late at night after each game lol).

Cheers

Steve 🙂

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

Session 77 – The Vault Door & The Golem

The Otari 2600’s awoke, did their daily preparations and planned their attack on the door and the clay golem in the vault. After several hours of (real time) discussion, they headed to the vault and shimmied across the rope to the narrow ledge in front of the door.

The party agreed Lob the alchemist should open the door and trigger the trap, but that Ezren the wizard would cast Resilient Sphere on the goblin so he wouldn’t be harmed by the blast. (The amount of planning and action taken to open this vault door made it one of the most difficult foes of the entire campaign.) Unfortunately, Ezren forgot that anything inside the immobile sphere couldn’t move, so Lob sat there for a minute until the sphere disappeared before he could attempt to open the door. There was a blast of force energy and the little goblin was sent hurtling into the water. He managed to pull himself up onto the ledge before the dark shapes in the watery depths got to him.

Gunnar the fighter rushed into the vault with a bag of holding filled to the brim with water. He released it onto the clay golem’s feet, which dissolved into muddy stubs. Ezren ran in, holding the door open with is foot, and blasted the golem with a ray of frost. Both water and cold had the same effects on the golem, causing much more damage than expected. The clay golem responded by sliding forward and slamming both the fighter and wizard with its huge fists.

Corny and Lob entered, positioning themselves at the back of the vault; Lob’s cold bombs had the desired effect, blasting the golem. Corny healed Ezren so he could summon a Living Waterfall, which attacked the golem, spraying it with water. Vydar the ranger fired an arrow from outside the room into the golem, but the effect was dramatically muted by the golem’s clay body.

Gunnar used his shield to shove the creature back into the corner. The golem could only reach the living waterfall (which hurt it whenever it hit) and the fighter. Gunnar dropped his scimitar, unbuttoned his fly and peed on the golem, but unfortunately his urine stream fell a bit short (perhaps he should have drunk more that morning).

Ezren finished off the golem with a ray of frost, but as its clay form dissolved into chunks and collapsed to the floor, a side door flung open and a plate armored, skeletal-faced figure demanded in a graven voice: “Who are the infidels trespassing in my vault?”

Session 78 – The Grave Knight & The Vault Rooms

The grave knight raised its hand and blasted a cone of cold at the party (missing Corny the cleric, who lurked in the north corner of the room, just out of range). It slashed its frost greatsword at Gunnar the fighter, who had rushed up to defend the others. The fighter railed under the blow. Corny the cleric tried to heal him from across the room, but the grave knight’s aura counteracted the spell. The party gasped as they realized they could not rely on their healer…

The living waterfall summoned by Ezren the wizard fell, to be replaced by a storm snake that could generate electricity. It was soon killed as well, but not before shocking the grave knight several times.

Vydar fired off a series of spellstrike arrows, but none found their mark. Lob the goblin alchemist tossed bombs and these seemed to have the most effect, causing ongoing acid and flames that continually wore the grave knight down.

Eventually Ezren was knocked unconscious. Soon, everyone was seriously injured, with Gunnar swigging healing potions to stay in the battle. Corny linked his lifeforce to Gunnar’s, and it was this that stopped the heroic fighter from being smashed by the grave knight’s powerful blows. Corny eventually collapsed as he absorbed half the damage meant for the fighter.

As Lob’s ongoing acid and fire damage whittled the grave knight down, Gunnar landed the killing blow, smashing the knight’s helmet and skull into its plate armor.

Relieved, the downed party members were revived and Corny conducted first aid on everyone. Ezren determined the creature was a grave knight, that its armor was cursed and that it would eventually rejuvenate. Lob found some keys on the knight’s body, and Vydar checked the locked doors around them.

The northern door was a treasure room. The silver, gold and platinum coins in its three chests were poured into one of the party’s bags of holding. Lob suggested wrapping the grave knight’s armor in chains and placing it in one of the chests. They then locked the door.

The next room had been damaged by an alchemical blast sometime in the past. Nothing of value could be found.

Vydar wandered into the bare chamber the grave knight had originated from and found two locked doors and a secret door, which he opened. Wandering down the corridor beyond, he found a teleportation portal room. Ezren and Lob managed to awaken the portal using the ritual they had learned…

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