You Can't Make Me Leave My Home!

Hero Point System

From now on at the beginning of each game everyone starts with a hero point. Then if good role playing or combat takes place, additional hero points will be awarded to those players. This week Cinder is awarded an additional point with usage of Color Spray spell that helped take out 2 swarms of Ravens.

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The party explores the loosely drawn map of the homesteads outside of Arwyll's Stead. As they follow the narrow trail they encounter interesting and different homes. One was a trap maker who was a bad farmer. Another was an Elf with a sick human partner. Another was a group of commoners that have a number of children.

Then finally they meet Grev, who quickly goes back into his house and brings out a drawing of Vegazi that he made years ago when Adil Arwyll was still alive.

Grev's drawing of Vegazi and Adil from years prior

Then the party convinces him that he must leave his house and return with them to Arwyll Stead. He does so, but then the party is attacked by a couple of swarms of Ravens.

They kill the ravens quickly with the help of Cinder's Color Spray spell.

Then once they arrive back to Arwyll's Stead the party sees a group of demons flying over the gates. They then drop something that lands with a splat roughly 25 yards in front of them. As they approach they can discern that it is actually a head. And then it starts to yell in common with an orc accent: "The Hell's Fury tribe demands the half-orc Vegazi. Until then, devils will walk among you. Refuse, and this won't be the last body that falls." The party realizes it is a magically enhanced head that has a powerful Magic Mouth spell cast upon it. It seems powerful because the words it just spoke it repeats them after a few minutes.

Get Those Farmers In Tha House!

Loot
From the 3 Orcs and 1 Tall Orc
1 Potion of something ?!? (It isn't cure light wounds!)
1 Masterwork Falchion
3 Normal Falchions

From Ovir Radan for assisting with the funeral
4 Potions of Cure Light Wounds
Scroll of remove curse
3 Flasks of Holy Water

From Evil Tall Orcish Bitch that you killed in Catacombs
Potion of Cure Light Wounds
Potion of Magic Weapon
Scroll of Magic Missile
Scroll of Ray of Enfeeblement
3 Smokesticks
+1 Breastplate with Armor Spikes
Black Feather Necklace

From Little Red Dudes that would disappear and summon
Scroll of Protection from Evil
Scroll of Magic Circle against Evil
Wand of See Invisibility

Well this time the party finishes investigating the Catacombs and revive Davakus. They find no more bad guys, but they do find a Coward named Jenkins hiding in a sarcophagus.

They come out and meet with Terrin Shaw, who they discover was Wate's best friend. He talks to the party for a little while. Then they assist with a funeral for all the dead that were slain in the town.

Wate's Best Friend and asks party to save the outside farmers

Here they meet up with Cinder again! He tells them a wild story of flying on Eagles to come across Golarion in search of the Elven Maiden that had been with the party for a few weeks. He appears haggard and tired from such a long hunt, also sad since he has seen so much death and carnage.

Performs the rights over the dead, and gives stuff to party for their support.

They go back and spend the night at the Blissful Badger. Next morning Terrin comes to the party and asks them to help convince the homesteaders that live outside the city to get to the village. He is concerned they are in mortal danger and should stay in the Stead until the danger is gone.

The party begrudgingly agrees to the assignment and goes outside the city's walls to find these lowly peasants. As they leave the city they notice a Red Eagle and Boar are following them from a distance. A few of the party members ready their weapons, but the eagle and boar never approach close enough to be fired upon.

They come across the first farmstead, and also find a group of Orcs. They quickly dispose of them and notice the Orcs have the tribal paint on their skin of The Hell's Fury tribe.

DnD Rule #1 - Don't Split The Party!

The party begins the adventure on the outside of The Blissful Badger, which has now become The Smelly Pig. Mayor Proum has met them outside in the very early morning with utter chaos taking place. In all directions the party can hear fighting and screaming.

Mayor Proum politely asks the party to help investigate The Catacombs of the city. In which he had received reports a group of demons had gone into the underground vaults to investigate. He also mentioned that his current military forces were busy assisting the local townsfolk with other demon raiding that was taking place.

The party agrees and starts to go in the direction of the Catacombs. As they go they encounter a number of priests from the Temple of Iomedea that heal and pray for their safe return. They also provide a number of 'raining arrows' to Vegazi. In which you can see vials of holy water in the shafts of the arrows.

Then they enter the Catacombs and immediately see a fork in the main hall. Then they notice that right after the two passageways leading to the left and right, there are large boulders and ruble. Obviously these Catacombs haven't been well maintained!

As Alex and Harkrug get to the two passageways leading left and right they notice to the left one of the really gooey demons. He lets out a combination of a burp and fart, blart. The party then rushes up and starts to destroy the gooey monstrosity, because they know deep down the sooner they kill it, the sooner they can get away from the smell! But just as they start to fight the thing, they see two more coming down the hall! So it becomes a smorgasbord of goo, filth, and sulfuric blood odor. Yet for some crazy reason as they smash the gooey things to a pulp, they didn't have to roll fortitude saves...

Harkrug stays in the main passageway since the party had heard sounds coming from both directions. And as the gooey fight reaches its climax, Harkrug notices a little red demon guy with wings creep around the corner in the hallway to the right. As soon as Harkrug spots him though, he disappears! Crazy little f'ers... Harkrug casts bless on the party.

Harkrug hears sounds emanating from the room the little evil red guy disappeared from. Then he notices a second little evil guy appear out of thin air! He appears stunned, with his eyes blinking. Finally he too disappears, but then a swarm of rats appears!

Once the gooy guys are killed Vegazi rushes down to attack the little red demons. She rushes into the room with Charron in tow. The fight then becomes somewhat intense and Vegazi goes unconscious.

During this fight, Davakus and Alex decide to continue to explore the dungeon. Thinking Vegazi, Harkrug, and Vegazi should be able to easily dispose of the little guys.

As Davakus comes around the corner, he then sees a very large woman with a very large dog. They both lunge toward him with evil in their eyes!

Really mean woman with flaming axe!

The party finishes killing the big evil half-orc-half-tiefling looking woman and her hound. With Davakus still unconscious. Will more evil demons come out of the woodwork? Will the smell of dead gooey guys overwhelm them? What lies next for our intrepid adventurers?

The Blissful Badger Gets An Overhaul

Loot:
3 potions of cure light wounds
Silver Raven of Wondrous Power - Vegazi got it, and she appreciates it! More rep with her now
Sack of Itching Powder
Masterwork Heavy Crossbow
20 bolts
+1 buckler
Scroll of Daze Monster
2 Oils of Align Weapon (Good)

The party finishes up their Q'n'A with Shovaan, Gallus, and Darrel. They find out that Vegazi actually has a long history with the Arwyll family. In which she rescued Adil Arwyll, who is Wake's father 20 years ago. And he was so appreciative he gave her his signet ring. She gives the ring to Darrel and he is very appreciative since this will go a long way in helping to restore some semblance of commerce with Arwyll Stead and neighboring villages.

Darrel offers the party free room and board at The Blissful Badger. In which they all get their own rooms. Charron of course takes the larger of the rooms. While Vegazi being humble takes the room without a cot.

In the middle of the night, Davakus is attacked by a couple of red little fuckers (Imps). They stab at him with nasty poking claws and reduce his dexterity by 3. Finally the party kills the imps, but then they hear a bunch of commotion downstairs.

They race downstairs to find more bad creatures wreaking havoc on the Inn and Tavern. Alex helps save Vegazi from being overwhelmed from oozing demons. (Lemures) Alex also helps kill them as well as put out a fire in the kitchen.  He is the savior of The Blessful Badger!

The party explores downstairs and kill two more Mr. Gooy's that have made the entire place a smelly pile of shit. Literally smells like sulfur crap...

The party then goes outside since they hear a lot of fighting taking place outside. The mayor rushes up and politely asks if the party will investigate the catacombs. He suspects that the leader of the raiding party has gone there and his town guards are busy saving the lives of the people that live in the Stead.

So now the party is going to go investigate who went down there and see what this is all about. What will they find out?

Wacked on the head and now in the middle of combat?

Summary

Loot:
2 Bird Feather Tokens
1 Whip Feather Token
Scroll of See Invisibility
Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds

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The party is knocked out by slavers. Fortunately Alex and Charron wake up and are able to subdue one of their kidnappers. Then they are re-knocked out.

Finally they wake up with the slaver cart on its side. They can hear combat off in the distance. They get out and see the last few survivors of a great battle. They see a lone half-orc woman struggling to keep two medium sized flying demons at bay. But as soon as the party walks around the side of the cart and take in the scene, the two last demons switch targets to kill the party.

Finally, the party is able to retrieve some weapons that are scattered around the cart and defeat the two winged creatures. The half-orc approaches the group after they are done with combat and thanks them for their assistance. She introduces herself as Vegazi, but says little else about herself.

They escort her and the body of Wake Arwyll back to Arwyll Stead. Which hundreds of people morn the death of the last member of the Arwyll family. Out of the crowd that forms around the body comes Darryl Proum. Who introduces himself as the towns Mayor. He directs some priests to take the party to The Temple of Iomedae to get cleaned up.

Holy Symbol of Iomedae that the party see's throughout the town.

After becoming cleaner then they have been in a long time. They are escorted to Darrel Proum's estate. They come inside and see the body of Wake Arwyll being setup for morning. The party is then introduced to Shovaan and Gallus, a couple of leaders of the town.

From The Frying Pan Into The Fire

The party has managed to kill a ton of goblins that were guarding the outside of Thistletop. But as they were starting to prepare to enter the rotting building that is on the island, Gogmurt sneaks up from behind. He is not happy they killed his companion, Tangletooth. His cat that he has spent all his life with.

Gogmurt

Gogmurt casts entangle and manages to entwine a number of the players. Then turns into a Stirge and fly's up to one of the towers. After having a little skirmish with Davakus, he decides to recover and attack again later.
Harkrug opens the front door, and see a large batch of goblins waiting for him! Fortunately they take them out in a short amount of time. But right after they do, they hear drum beats and chanting from deeper within the rotting buildings.
They decide to go ahead and investigate the chanting, only to find out it is another goblin War Chieftain Ripnugger! Who immediately attacks the party. This time Charron and Harkrug go unconscious from the onslaught of devistation. But fortunately Shalelu Andosana is with them and helps defeat the foes. With the help of Ruak and Davakus sneaking up from behind the goblin warlord.

Ripnugget

Now the party is recovering from their wounds. They see that there are a couple of stairs leading further down into the depths below Thistletop. Will the party decide to keep going? Or will they head back to Sandpoint to gather more resources and men?

Getting to Thistletop

The party meets Usulea, who escorts them to Thistletop. They get to the area of Thistletop without any confrontations. Then they have a tough time finding the entrance. Once the entrance is found they encounter a number of goblins and goblin dogs. Finally they meet a Cougar that gives Charron some nasty cuts.

Once past those creatures they find the wobbly small bridge to Thistletop. They cross the bridge one by one. Once they get to the other side a number of Goblins attack, which they are able to subdue without much effort.

Now the party is at Thistletop, which appears to be a heaven of bad guys and mean people. They are now waiting for more mean folks to come out and greet. them...

The Party Heads North

The party sees the evil bat lady disappear and they start to explore the room for any additional things of value. As they do so she asks Harkrug a question, why did you come here? He anwsers her truthfully without his desire to do so.

As this is done she re-materializes in front of the party. In which they dispose of her quickly. She attempts to disappear again, but Harkrug spots her attempting to flee and throws a dagger at her.

Once she is disposed the party continues to explore the dungeon. They find a couple more Sinspawn. And then they find a mutated Goblin that has 3 weapons in his 3 hands. A wizard casts fear on him and he falls into one of the pits meant for the party to fall into! The zombie attacks him and he dies in the pit.

The party continues to explore the dungeon and finally find a large round room with items floating in it. Very weird room due the weird walls that seem to pulsate with their own powers. They find a book with lots of Lamastu writings in it, etc.

Now the party must decide to continue on to Thistletop or not. That is where Tsuto had intended to escape to.

Exploration of caverns

So the party meets Ruark! Who is another scholarly half-orc from Riddleport. He appears to be someone who can take care of himself. If you know what I mean!

The party decides to continue to explore the caverns below the Glassworks that appear to have some relationship with the Goblin invasions and Tsuto's obsession with a hottie. Given the drawings definitely a hottie!

So they go back down and meet up with what is recalled to be a Sinspawn. A huge evil looking thing with a very large mouth!

Then they discover a large cathedral like room with a nasty bitch that has wings and fly's around casting spells at them. They finally take her out and shut her up.

What will the party do now? They have defiantly found some serious stuff here, right below Sandpoint! Will they continue to explore and find more loot? Will they go back and give the bad news to the people of Sandpoint? If they go to the bathroom into the orange lava pool, will it just disappear? Or turn into some noxious smoke that will kill them all!

She did not like invaders of her cathedral!

The Glassworks

The group is investigating a note that they were given by one of the employees of The Rusty Dragon that asked Ameiko to come to the Glassworks. It was signed by her brother Tsuto (Suto).

As the party walks around the Glassworks they have a group of groupies that have followed them. Harkrug tells them to stand back and be careful. Something seems odd since all of the windows have been closed up with boards and curtains.

Davakus breaks open a back door and they all sneak inside. Once they enter the main hall of the glassworks they see 8 Goblins and Tsuto. The Goblins are doing weird things to human corpses and they also see Tsuto's father strung up and dead.

The party makes short work of the goblins and successfully knock out Tsuto. Charron welded his greatsword like a battering ram, making a few Goblins splatter like melons. Once he is revived they successfully intimidate him into telling him what he knows.

Then they go down into the underground tunnels below the Glassworks and find Ameiko tied up in a storage room. They bring her out and show her father's body to her. She is stoic about it.

The Road to Thistletop

Summary
The party went on a boar hunt with Andern and then met Shelalu. Then one of the servants of The Rusty Dragon showed a note to the party that showed that Keimo is now missing, and she has appeared to have gone to the Glassworks. Now the party has just broken into the Glassworks...


The band of adventures start the evening with The Rusty Dragon in full effect with excitement taking place everywhere. In which Andern Foxglove is fitting the bill for all the drinks and food the party can consume. Ameiko the owner of the tavern is providing special food and drink that she has in her reservoir of exotic wares.

As they sit and talk to Andern, he drunkenly proposes that the party go on a Boar Hunt the following morning in Tickwood Forest. He asks the group if they knew why the forest is named Tickwood Forest? Which elites the goblin-killing groupies that have started to follow the party around town. He answers the question, stating that the forest is named after the very large ticks that reside in the forest. And he professes that there are no goblins in this part of Varisia.

The next morning the party leave early for Tickwood Forest, in which Andern has purchased horses for each party member. As they ride out of town all the employees of the stables are out to cheer them on as they go ‘hunting’!

As they take the north east trail to the forest they get their first good view of what is called Devils Platter. A long expansive area that stretches on and on as far as the eye can see.

Then once they get into the forest they quickly encounter their first boar. Which the party kills fairly quickly, but one of the horses is severely injured. Andern has potions of cure light wounds that he gives the wounded horse after the boar is killed.

The party returns to Sandpoint without any additional encounters with the cut up corpse of the boar. Which Andern gives to Ameiko and asks for it to be cooked and provided to everyone at the tavern.

After the party has cleaned up and is ready to eat dinner Sheriff Hemlock approaches the party and asks them to follow him to City Hall. Which they agree to and find that only the city guard are on the outside of the building.

They entire and meet with the Mayor and a tall elf named Shalelu. Hemlock goes on and on about Shalelu and her recent accomplishments of taking care of goblins in the surrounding area. Once the Sheriff is done Shalelu introduces herself and talks about how she has noticed an uprising of goblin tribes in the area.

Once she is done with her report the Sheriff quickly states that in the early morning he will be leaving for Magnimar to request additional soldiers for defense from the goblins. And then he leaves, leaving the party with the Mayor and Shalelu. Once the Sheriff is gone Shalelu invites the party to dinner to discuss further the goblin tribes in the area.

What went Right

1. The activities of NPCs were alright and nothing bad happened to the party.

What went Wrong

1. GM had to work late, so there was a one hour delay

2. GM had video streaming from webcam, which impacted players ability to hear and participate. Need to turn off next time.

Chaos at Sandpoint

This time the party describes their appearance to each of the other party members. In which they are starting to learn a little about each other's back stories. But they don't provide too much information.

Cinder is a Tiefling warrior who looks to be much more then just a fighter. He has glowing eyes and an attitude of anger about him.

Charron, a Half-Orc brute that no one wants to mess with.

Davakas, a Half-Elf fighter that is always looking for the change to throw his daggers!

and Harkrug, another Half-Orc that appears to have a spiritual element about him at all times.

As the dust settles from the two fights the party had with Goblins, they hear fighting 20 yards away and a man screaming for help. They rush over to see a man lying on the ground bleeding. And they see his dog get killed by a ruthless Goblin Commando. The party runs up and takes out the commando and his goblin henchmen easily enough.

Then they finally go back to their rooms at The Rusty Dragon. In which all the occupants of the tavern want to buy the party drinks and food. Charron and Harkrug are both pleasantly surprised how much gratitude they receive from the Humans of Sandpoint, in which they are used to not receiving so much thanks in other countries of Golarion.

Then Cinder learns that one woman has a little bit more in mind. In fact she asks the group to help her get rid of some rats in her Father's General Store.

The party helps her by going down into the basement. But then they quickly find out it was actually a setup by Shayliss to get the party down there and frame them. The father comes down and tries to hit one of the party members. Fortunately they are able to dissuade him of such violent thoughts. The Father takes the daughter away and now the party has even more infamy in Sandpoint. As well as potentially some good discounts on general goods!

Then the party goes to the Boneyard and destroys two Skeletons, learning about Erekian's sarcophagus has been vandalized and the body stolen! Sheriff Hemlock and Temple Leader Zantus are both grateful for their help with the skeletons.

What went right during this game:

1. GM had macros setup for combat creatures attack

2. Story line was smoother and combat was better paced.

What went wrong:

1. GM was not fully setup with maps and NPCs for the scenarios the players were playing.

2. The 3 hour time slot that some players wanted didn't actually work with the group, in which we had a couple of people drop off around 2 1/2 hours of game time.

Meeting at Sandpoint

The estranged party do not each other yet, but they each have their own personal reason for being at the Swallowtail Festival in the early morning. They hear the presentations from Sandpoint's leaders Sheriff Belor, Cyrdak,

Then combat takes place, which Cinder, Charron, Davakas, Harkrug, and Arcyss are able to quickly kill some of the main Goblins in the festival square.

Now there is a lull in the combat and excitement.

GM Notes - What went right and what went wrong

Wrong

1. Had issues with everyone signing into Google Hangouts, some players thought we would use the roll20.net video/audio. But I know that Google Hangouts is faster on slower networks, so I prefer to use that.
2. Some players had trouble viewing their character sheets in roll20, hopefully that is fixed now.
3. Some players are confused regarding their back stories. I had purposely made the back stories a little vague so that the players need to investigate in Sandpoint to determine all the facts.
4. The rolling of initiative could have gone smoother, hopefully in future games it will be better.
5. Combat could have gone smoother with understanding of each players armor class and damage abilities.

Right

1. The initial festival maps and introduction was alright.