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), finished the campaign after 85 Sunday night sessions!

I apologize in advance for the writing in these summaries – they’re a bit raw (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 79 – Gulp!

Vydar the ranger opened the second-last vault door. The shelves of the room contained several old books and various odds and ends. In the center of the room was a dusty mechanism of copper and silver. It was missing its lenses but otherwise looked like the framework of a lantern that belonged in the top of a lighthouse. Lob the goblin alchemist and Ezren the wizard investigated the books.

The journals were Belcorra’s (from when she was alive) and described the four fulcrum lenses (in crimson, ebon, emerald, and ochre) that focused Nhimbaloth’s soul-extinguishing gaze across space and time. The books detailed how Belcorra built Gauntlight and created a special framework called the Fulcrum Lattice to fit the four lenses and harness their power. A diagram of the Fulcrum Lattice made it clear that the device was the very one sitting in the middle of the room. Belcorra expressed some trepidation at using the fulcrum lenses; they each contained a sliver of Nhimbaloth’s essence, and bringing them in close proximity could be dangerous. More specifically, the lenses imparted Nhimbaloth’s essence into those who used or were touched by them. Having all four essences imbued at once was sure to bring Nhimbaloth’s dreadful scrutiny. Belcorra had her apprentice, Volluk Azrinae, fashion mundane lenses that would allow Gauntlight to function at a diminished capacity until the Fulcrum Lattice and the fulcrum lenses could be installed, on the eve of Belcorra’s assault on Absalom.

Belcorra’s journals explained that she used only the Ebon Fulcrum Lens in the Empty Vault at Gauntlight’s base, deeming the essence within one fulcrum lens a minimal risk. She gave the other lenses to trusted groups in the lower vaults: the emerald lens to the urdefhans, the ochre lens to the drow, and the crimson lens hidden where her undead gnome minions could protect it. She trusted that the groups wouldn’t work with each other or bring the lenses together.

Ezren read a bit more about the Harovexes and Belcorra’s motivation for her hatred of Absolom. The Haruvex family’s strongest bloodlines had an aberrant strain, which provided family prestige as well as sorcerous power. Generations of Haruvexes married within the family to strengthen this lineage, and the most powerful Haruvexes lived in Absalom 500 years ago. These Absalom Haruvexes secretly worshiped the Outer Gods for great wealth and power, but none in the family approached the power of their youngest, Belcorra Haruvex. Belcorra had been told that she was the harbinger of Nhimbaloth, the Empty Death, and that she was her family’s greatest hope for power and prosperity.

The Haruvexes enacted abhorrent rites in their worship, including bloody sacrifices, and the authorities eventually caught wind of their crimes. They were were finally driven from the Isle of Kortos in 4219 ar, forced to leave their estates and luxuries behind. Belcorra was only 6 years old at the time, but as she grew, her rage at losing her home solidified into an overwhelming hatred of Absalom and everyone in it.

Most of the exiled Haruvexes died in poverty, but Belcorra grew strong. At 17, she interpreted visions from Nhimbaloth that led her back to the Isle of Kortos to plan her revenge. Far above a subterranean shrine to Nhimbaloth (the Empty Vault), in a lonely stretch of wooded coast a few dozen miles from Absalom, Belcorra erected a magical lighthouse and called it Gauntlight. She dug deep beneath it to reach the shrine she had seen in her visions, and while she worked, she planned her revenge. She would draw subterranean monsters and violent beasts into her Abomination Vaults and use Gauntlight’s magic to send them into Absalom to wreak havoc. She enacted the first part of her plan, expanding the Vaults and raising a defensible keep around the lighthouse. She leveraged family acquaintances to acquire powerful retainers and champions to lead her monstrous forces, but was killed by the adventurers who would later found Otari before she could bring her entire plan to fruition. Now, her ghost continued the plan…

Lob placed the Fulcrum Lattice into the party’s bag of holding. The party agreed they would place any lenses recovered into the Lattice within the bag of holding to prevent Belcorra detecting them.

The final vault was an armory. Gunnar found a battle axe and chain shirt.

Exiting the vault, the party made their way back to the fungus/refuse-covered island to the north of the lake. Ezren started to use detect magic to scan for the missing lens in the lake. He eventually made his way back across the suspended rope to the vault ledge, where he sensed a magic item in the water just off the shore of a small island to the southwest.

Back at the fungus island, Corny the cleric decided to wade into the water and make noise to distract any water creatures from what Ezren was doing. He attracted a Deepwater Dhothorex, which rushed up on the shore and swallowed the hapless cleric whole. Gunnar struck the creature numerous times with his axe, and Vydar pumped it full of arrows, but the giant shark-like creature escaped into the water, taking the swallowed Corny with it. Corny cast light on the creature from inside it so that it glowed brightly in the water. The poor cleric then passed out, starting to suffocate.

Ezren summoned a water mephit and sent it to recover the magic item in the water, but as it swam back a Deepwater Dhuthorex tore the mephit in half and swallowed the ochre lens it was carrying. Lob threw lightning bombs at the Dhuthorex to distract it, and Ezren summoned a storm snake to stop it from leaving, but the Dhuthorex tore up the snake and headed off into deeper water.

Meanwhile, the glowing Dhuthorex that had swallowed Corny was blasted by Ezren with multiple magic missiles. It died, sinking to the bottom of the lake. The other Dhuthorex sensed the blood in the water and rushed off to eat it. During the frenzy, Corny’s body was freed from the other fish’s stomach, and his unconscious form dropped to the sandy bottom.

Ezren dimension doored over to the far shore of the lake, then cast air bubble around Corny’s head. As the cleric awoke, he swam to just below the surface, while Lob leaped on to a rock column and climbed around to assist. Gunnar swam out into the lake to help Corny back to the fungus island.

The party regrouped on the island, happy their compatriot was still alive and somewhat confident they would find and kill the Dhuthorex once they recovered. They headed back to the secret vault chamber, where they rested for the night…

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