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 81 – The Emerald Lens

A guttural voice echoed from the dark across the waters of the lake. “My people thank you. You have done us a great service by destroying the Dhuthorexes that ruled the lake. I wish to meet with you. I am Khurfel of the Urdefhans.”

Vydar the ranger dragged himself ashore on the mushroom-covered isle, collapsing with exhaustion. Lob the goblin alchemist ran over, and realizing that the Urdefhans might soon come to the island, dragged Vydar under cover.  

Meanwhile, Ezren the wizard emerged from deep catalepsy to find a hastily scrawled note on his chest. He read Lob’s jittery handwriting and realized the party had gone to recover the ochre lens swallowed by the Dhuthorex. He made his way out of the vault and opened the stone door to see a bloody and exhausted Gunnar (the party’s stoic fighter) standing on the narrow lip at the water’s edge, the carcass of the slaughtered dhuthorex receding in a cloud of blood into deep waters.

Corny the cleric shimmied over the rope to get to the fighter and treat his wounds. Lob joined him, stepping back into the vault, but as he did a thumping sound could be heard behind the locked north door (where the party had secured the remains of the Graveknight Callido Haruvex) and a wailing voice: “let me out so that I might destroy you all!”

The party elected to return to the ledge and closed the vault door. Lob shimmied across the suspended rope to the mushroom island where he secreted himself in a fungi patch.

Khurfel and the Urdefhans turned up, occupying almost the entirety of the island. Khurfel called for the party to attend him. Meanwhile, Ezren, Gunnar and Corny discussed ways to trick Khurfel into fighting the graveknight for them. Eventually Corny crossed to the island and chatted with the Urdefhan warlord, but he saw through the party’s vain attempt at deception. Khurfel thanked Corny for helping kill the Dhuthorexes, which had been a bane to his people for some time. The warlord indicated some dissatisfaction with his current situation, hinting that Belcorra and he no longer shared common goals. He invited the party back to his lair to discuss it further, commenting that “the walls have ears”, then left with his entourage.

The party mulled over the meeting for some time, and decided to swim across the lake to the opposite bank to take up Khurfel on his offer. Along the way, Lob climbed up on the shore of a green-crystal enshrouded island and spotted some eggs. He avoided them, swimming for the opposite beach. Ezren, however, decided he might like to have one. An emu-like Cauthooj rose from her hiding place to protect her clutch, blasted all with a confusing sonic blast and pecked the erstwhile wizard into unconsciousness.

Corny managed to heal Ezren from the lake, avoiding Gunnar’s confused punches, but Lob confusedly sent an alchemist’s fire bomb hurtling into the wizard’s prone form. Eventually, they all reached the far shore and Corny treated Ezren’s wounds.

Several Urdefhan guards led the party to Khurfel’s lair, where he met with them in a room he assured them Belcorra could not penetrate. Khurfel explained he was loath to continue supporting Belcorra in her 500-year old vengeance on Absolom. He did not want any more of his people lost to such an aimless cause. He offered the emerald fulcrum lens in his possession to the party, as long as they followed through on their quest to silence Belcorra forever.

The party were allowed to rest and recuperate in the lair. Khurfel and his entourage led them to the great ebon double doors they had found earlier, and Lob used the skull key he recovered in the graveknight’s vault to open the doors. Khurfel gave the party the emerald fulcrum lens, and they entered a long chamber beyond the doors, which closed and sealed behind them.

At the end of the corridor was a skeleton seated on a throne. It arose, quoted the party’s names and bid them enter a door to the east. They followed the skeleton through another chamber and then down the stairs to the deepest recesses of the Abomination Vaults…

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