WotBS thekwp's War of the Burning Sky Unchained

Black Horse mercenary interrogation

Having accepted the surrender of one of the Black Horse mercenaries, the party then proceeded to interrogate the horseman. This was handled between sessions via email, with skill checks rolled by the Game Master (me). Here are the results of those exchanges. They might help someone who is handling this suddenly in game, rather than having time to consider on all of the responses.

Note that the answers in this use the expanded encounter numbers I used to adjust for my 6 person party.

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Q: How many more are positioned down the road?

A: There were six men down the road, and the new lieutenant, Danava. Renard's plan was that you would all run down and let everyone take a pot shot at you before Danava blocked everyone just before the icy spot; if you didn't run, the scouts would blow the horn and they would roll you up. He even had a different signal supposed to be given if we had beaten our group and they needed help. He and his damn fancy plans. Didn't want to listen to Danava or anyone else about keeping it simple.

Q: Are there any more positioned down the road?

A: I couldn't see for sure, but it sounded like everyone came in after the horn got blown.

Q: How many total in the Black Horse company?

A: Only a dozen of us right here, plus the Lieutenant and Captain Woodsman. There are another thirty are in the town, rolling up bounties. Lt. Danava was the only one who could get out; something about a lock down in the town with the Ragesians showing up. Pissed the Captain off when he got the letter back saying he was honor bound not to try and take any of them out, and that he couldn't anyway.


Q: Where was the staging area? Where was their camp?

A: We made camp about two miles back this canyon path. Captain Woodsman got one of his mysterious messages again day before yesterday, and moved us further into the passes over to here. We left our original camp to the west of the city's gates a week ago. It's still got a dozen men or so there, but it's nearly impossible to get there from here without going through Gate Pass.


Q: Where would those that ran regroup to? What do you think the ones that ran will do next?

A: Albert and Butch? They're going to run back to camp, get there stuff, and move on! They turned yellow and ran, and they ain't going to wait for you to show up and cut their heads off. Or wait around for Renard to show up and cut their nuts off! I doubt they'll even take the prisoner off with them, and he's just money waiting to be cashed in.


Q: How and when did they get informed we were coming?

A: The Captain got another one of those mysterious messages, voices talking to him from afar. Told him to stop messing around with the witch bloods and sorcerers, that we should commit everything we could to watching for a group with a gnome, and elf, a dwarf, and a white blonde woman. He told us that the Inquisitors were going to pay us 10,000 gold for you! What did you guys do to be worth that much? Every spell caster is only worth 100 gp each.

Q: What were their orders for combat?

A: Renard went on and on about his detailed plan. None of you was to get away. If we could take the gnome or the elf or the woman alive, that was fine, but not the most important thing. We were supposed to kill the rest. Lt Danava was pretty pissed about that. He may be a better rider and swordsman than anyone else in the company, but he's got a thing or two to learn about Renard Woodsman, that's for sure! Or, he did, I guess...

Q: Any other units in the area?

A: No one I knew of. I know the Inquisitors often lead small detached units to take out selected targets, but haven't heard of any in the area. I assume if there were they'd have gotten the orders to get you guys instead of farming it out to a mercenary company like us.

Q: Where were your previous station and assignments?

A: We just got back from Sindaire late last year. After Coaltongue showed up to put down that little uprising from the city mayors for the Exarch, she no longer needed to hire groups like ours to put things in order. Once Renard heard Supreme Inquisitor Leska calling for the collection of spell casters and paying good gold for 'em, he figured Gate Pass's "School of War" was going to be a big pay off for us. Then maybe we could join up with 2nd Army.


Q: What is your chain of command?

A: Captain Renard Woodsman. Then the new LT, Kathor Danava. He only joined us a few weeks back. Then Lt Buhrnikoff, but he's holding down the old camp. Then whoever Renard puts in charge of a work detail. Danava wanted to start making that a regular status, and tighten up the units, but the Captain wanted to rotate people around.


Q: What was the plan if you did capture or kill us, and get the box?

A: Not sure. Take it back to the 2nd Army and cash it in, along with the prisoner, and any of you guys we captured.

Q: What's the scuttlebutt on Coaltongue?

A: I heard that the elves killed him! Pulled some kind of black magic to swallow his soul because he broke the heart of some bitch leader of theirs, then bury it deep in the earth. Lt Buhrnikoff said that was foolish, and he was pretty sure that the General Revulus and Supreme Inquisitor Leska had arranged it, then eaten his heart. But I don't think that's likely. Whatever is going on, without Coaltongue, the First Army is stranded in Sindaire without the Emperor's Torch to move them around!


Q: Who is in charge now?

A: From what I can tell, Supreme Inquisitor Leska seems to be calling the shots right now.

Session 08 - Nov 30, 2016

Player Summary

The Scouring of Gate Pass
Act Four: Aftermath of Running the Gauntlet

After the fight, Bosma started organizing the group. First, Dom and Torrent were tasked with assessing how hurt everyone in the party was, and take care of the healing, with a focus on Gath as the most seriously injured, but including the horses. The horses were picketed, and the trollhound was killed by Ceilthanus after he realized it might be vulnerable to acid.

At Bosma's suggestion, Krombholz climbed up the rope to the vantage point that the Black Horse scouts had used to fire down at the party, and Ceilthanus moved down the canyon to the next bend to watch down that path, after picking up one of the bows from the Black Horse calvary.

Bosma checked the Black Horse members, starting with Kalthor Danava, to separate the living from the dead. As he approached Kathor's body, the air grew heavier, and Bosma felt a tangible essence of regret and determination like static over his body. Something barely visible, as though an aura or perhaps a ghost, drifts out of Kathor's body and vanished, flying away into the sky. Dom felt a tugging at that very moment, and looked over, pulled by awareness of something unseen having happened, a sensation not unlike that when his waking dreams show him the misfortune that he or his friends had just narrowly avoided.

After the healing was completed, Bosma, Dom, and Gath turned to interrogate the Black Horse calvary who had surrendered. The trio were very convincing, and he cooperated with them in every way. While they did this, Torrent and Bosma went through the gear of the Black Horse mercenaries, pulling aside items of note and checking for magic. Gath asked to keep Kathor's blade, hoping to return it to the Danava family someday.

With the information from the interrogation, and the revelation that the Black Horse had kept a prisoner at their camp, the party decided to head to the camp used by the Black Horse a few miles up the side canyon. Ceilthanus advocated to "Kill all the slavers." Torrent had disagreed with him, "They are not slavers! But what happens to their prisoners is worse than slavery, I fear." In the end, the party left their prisoner behind to tend to his wounded allies, taking all the horses except Kathor Davan's mount with them; that horse remained exceptionally hostile to the party.

The Black Horse mercenaries had placed their modest camp near one of the collection of caves used to store the offerings from Gate Pass's Festival of Dreams, but new locks had been placed on the entrance gates. In one of them, the party found a man dead from exposure, with a gray cat curled up with him, both of them wrapped up under a silk shroud originally used to cover the clay jars stored in the cave. Clutched in the man's hand was a tiny clay jar. Dom decided to read what the man had made as his final offering, accepting the traditional burden for his faith of being obliged to help the fulfillment of the dead man's dreams. In it he found a thin strap of paper with the message "Please don't let my death be in vain."

After sorting through the Black Horse camp, the party settled in for the night. In the morning, Bosma and Gath made a grave for the unnamed man, with Dom saying the final prayers and rites for the dead man and the party paying their respects. As they finished doing so, the silk shroud which they were about to replace glowed briefly, the images of the four totem spirits on the fabric momentarily regaining their original vivid glory before fading again. Everyone witnessing it became aware that the ancient shroud had transformed into magical relic, the Dream Shroud.

Act Five: The Inquisitor

Heading out toward the Fire Forest of Innenotdar, the passed by the scene of the previous day's battle. The survivor they had left was not there, and one of the other bodies was gone. The rest were there, dead of exposure. Kathor Danava's body was there, but his horse was not.

After almost a full day's ride through the mountain, the party began to descend from the peaks into the hills. The frigid air grew notably warmer, with red flowers dotting the yellow grass on the roadside. Cinders drifted in the sky, and forest fire itself came into view, with tall pine trees stretching down into a valley, all of them burning across the horizon.

About a half mile from a steaming river that marked the border of the forest lay a small farm with a simply fashioned stone house. A young woman stood in clear view, with dark hair and wide blue eyes. As the party approached she said in strange tone "The Scourge comes, and the skulls of the dragon pursue you. I saw it in a dream." She shook off the strange spell that had overcome her, apologized, and pleaded with the group for their help.

Introducing herself as Crystin Ja-Nafeel, she explained that she knew the Ragesians were coming, and that she and her father needed to flee. She wanted to go with the group, whichever direction they were headed, to escape the fate she had seen for her and her father here. She was shocked at first when she was told they planned to travel through the Fire Forest, but soon resolved herself to go with the group if they would let her. She then admitted that she would need help in convincing her father to come.

Haddin Ja-Laffa proved to be something of a small challenge. Bosma and Ceilthanus recognized the stories associated with the man and his name, informing the group of the rumors surrounding the man, and the tragedy that befell him and his brother Mandragore. Haddin immediately dismissed the idea out of hand of fleeing from the Scourge. Upon hearing that their plan was to cross the Fire Forest, he remarked "You've impressed me already; your plan is actually stupider than you look." After some persuasion by the group, and the promise of access to the magic that would let them cross the Fire Forest, he seemed to agree to their request. Ceilthanus gave him the scroll of Stand the Heat, so that he could study and learn the spell, while Haddin ordered his daughter to fix dinner for their guests.

Almost an hour later, a loud voice proclaims "Haddin Ja-Laffa, you are hear by claimed by the Inquisition of Ragesia. Come out and peacefully submit to our custody, or the consequences will be fall all in this abode!" An unseen force opened the door, revealing six skeletons arrayed out the front door backed by two emaciated figures. Behind them near the one of the mounds were two half-orc soldiers in Ragesian uniforms, one orc with silver greataxe, and one orc wearing a bear-skull mask dressed in leather cords and bear skins, with a three-pronged claw on his hand.

Bromsby identified the orc in the bear skull mask as Inquisitor Boreus, one of the youngest Inquisitors authorized to run independent operations, but known to be patient and cautious. Dom happened to be at the door when it was opened, and responded to the threat of skeletons and ghouls at the door by channeling positive energy at them. Boreus ordered half of the undead to head around to the back, but before they could move Torrent followed up on Dom's lead, and destroyed most of the skeletons. The soldiers and the orcs approached, and Boreus turned to the orc with the silver axe, saying "You're up, Smiley." The orc got a tremendous, if ugly, grin on his face. He drank a potion, and began to enlarge.

Before Gath could move in to replace Dom, the now enlarged orc hit Dom with his greataxe, several hurting him. After Brosmby successfully used his Ear Piercing scream on Smiley, stunning him for a round, the party managed to finish off the ghouls. Dom felt back into the room, letting Gath take his place, with Bosma moving in beside him, getting his spear from Torrent. Inquisitor Boreus casts a Silence spell into the house. Gath closed the door, and held it successfully against an attempt by a Ragesian soldier to push through which nearly opened it.

Meanwhile, Krombholz checked the back door, and a crossbow bolt nearly hit him. Krombholz spotted the attacker as a goblin atop the stables. Behind him Ceilthanus came up, and opened the bedroom door to where Haddin had been studying. Ceilthanus told him of the attack and called him out to help with issue, but as the man came into the hall, both of them were caught in the Silence effect. Haddin gestured angrily at Ceilthanus, and appeared to be speaking, but the Silence prevented anyone from hearing what he said.

As Krombholz moved out the door, he was attacked by bugbear and a goblin, both of whom appeared at they attacked. Soon after, a skeleton following the Inquisitors earlier order came around the edge of the house, and attacked Krombholz. Ceilthanus interpreted Haddin's gestures to mean he should get out of the way and let Haddin into the space which was clear of the Silence spell. To do so, he tumbled through Krombholz and out past the enemies. Krombholz maneuvered as well, so that the two were flanking the skeleton. Haddin stepped forward into the space by the door clear of the Silence spell, and used a spell on the bugbear. The bugbear stopped attacking, and Haddin ordered him to kill the goblin.

To be continued

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Story Deviation & Extra Details

I added the bit about the religious implications for opening the sealed jars for dream wishes, and the players seemed to find that an interesting bit for the world.

I have described the "Blessed by Dreams" trait as the character having a quick, waking dream foretelling the failure of the saving throw, and them pulling on the Dimension of Dreams to manipulate the fate that would result. The only people aware that it is used is the character and the recipient of the ability; to everyone else, the final result is all that ever happened. My players have enjoyed this interpretation; with role dreams and eventually the world of dreams will play, this will obviously have a bigger role. I have interpreted this to actually be the results of the character's (unknowing) exposure to the the Trillith.

I changed the Dream Shroud. First of all, I think the item has very cool flavor and style, but with no paladin in the party, I believe the party would have abandoned the item by selling it, or purely hanging on for sentimental reasons rather than having it really matter to them. I feel like the spontaneous creation of a magic item under unique circumstances at this point in the adventure servers as a useful foreshadowing of the origins of the Burning Torch itself, so I wanted the item to stick around. Finally, I plan to have a particular emphasis on the nature of Dreams and the trillith in the game, to go along with having a cleric of the goddess of dreams. So, the Dream Shroud is a scaling item, using the Pathfinder Unchained rules for a prize. At the moment, all it can do is Align Weapon or Aid, once per day. Both Dom and Bosma are interested in it, more for its relationship to Gate Pass and dreams in general, than for its specific property. Dom is carrying it for now.

The description of the farm house in Act Five says it is a two-story house, but the map shows only one floor and no stairs. Since I was using that image directly for the encounter, I went with that skipping the supposed second story.

Tactical Notes and Conversions

Scaling this battle proved difficult. I tried to get the party the correct amount of experience to get them to level 3 by the end of the adventure. However, that would have ended up with a completely overwhelming assault. I decided to work it by having more distinct waves than the original battle. Then, I augmented the individual waves to be a bit tougher, but more manageable. So, the skeleton numbers were increased and a pair of ghouls added, but an additional round before the Boreus, Smiley, and the soldiers moved into place. I added a bugbear rogue to the goblins, and increased the goblins to three. However, the goblin who opened the door completely botched the attempt to tumble into the room through Dom, and pulled back. So, he ran around the side of the house with the portion of skeletons that attacked the back.

In general, converting the NPCs here was pretty straight forward, with just an additional class level for each. I made Smiley a pure barbarian, rather than barbarian/fighter. Inquisitor Boreous is an interesting case, though. The Magic domain mechanics changed for Pathfinder and do not allow him to use arcane spell completion items like scrolls, which would impact the tactics for him. In addition, raising him to 5th level would add 3rd level spells, and in particular, open up fireball for the Fire domain spell. An empowered fireball is a problem for a 2nd level party, of the "return to character generation" type. My answer was to give Inquisitor Boreus one level of Wizard (Necromancer), which grants him the Control Undead feat, the use of the arcane scrolls and planned tactics, and does not open the can of worms that 3rd level spells would be bring. I may post this conversion in another thread.

The tactical layout and description for the battle has some difficulties. It describes Krarlrak as climbing on top of the barn to have a view of the front and back of the house. Only, the map has a stable, no barn, and the stable does not have any line of sight to the front of the house. Since I was adding a goblin tot the total, I placed my added goblin on the 10' ft tall hill outside of the house and diametrically opposite the stable, hidden and prone. That gave full coverage for the farmhouse, with one sniper in front, one in the back, and the third to open the door.

Mechanics Issues

There was some discussion about the mechanics for delayed versus ready actions in initiative order. In the Revised Action Economy rules, readying an action does not change your order in the initiative. This means that in one case, the enemy delivered an attack by the ready action, and then got his full round action before the player could respond. This caused some confusion, but once we walked through and I reminded the players were they had benefited from it, we got back on track.

Despite years of playing with this group, I still struggle sometimes when multiple players are talking back and forth with the NPCs, and handling skill checks. I am trying something a bit different with this campaign, where I am letting the players handle their conversations, and then determine based on who spoke who makes the a Diplomacy (or Bluff, etc) check, and who is assisting. This is an admittedly subjective summary though, and I am not entirely happy with it. I feel like some players, who are a little more polite about letting others speak, may be getting overrun by some of the more talkative players. However, I want to encourage some natural in character conversation from the players with the people they encounter, rather than just "roll the dice."

Notable player reactions

I was very pleased by how seriously Dom took the somber situation with the dead prisoner, and the Dream Shroud.

Steven (Bromsby) seems to have missed the entire discussion in character last time with Kathor, and had J.T. (Gath) repeat the reasons why he thought Kathor might have turned. While Gath presented a lot of the information fairly well, Steven remained dismissive of the possibility. Bosma expressed, in character, genuine regret over Kathor's death, being not only the first person he really killed, but also the someone who was not blindly aggressive to the group. The player talked to me later about it being the first person who's life Bosma has taken, and he the fact that there was a name and possibility that it might have been avoided added a bit to the impact for the character.

Ceilthanus seems the most enthusiastic about getting Haddin to travel with the party, which I found a bit surprising. I think he sees the potential of a high level caster that travels with the party, and immediately started negotiating with the idea that a high level wizard could take their scrolls, learn Stand the Heat, and cast the spell many times. In the fight, he interpreted Haddin's angry gestures at him as a clear sign to get out of the way and the let the wizard with Dominate get into play. (And while that was true, everyone in the party was surprised that he ran outside, rather than just stepped back further into the Silence to let Haddin into the area that was not in the area of effect.) I will be curious to see how he handles Haddin's treatment of his daughter as well as his attitude over time. The rest of the party is rather wary of letting someone with a history of Dominate accompany them, and rightful so in this case.

Some random quotes from the conversations in the game:

• Ceilthanus, on Krombholz's suspicions: "The dwarf is a born cynic; it's a thing for his people. I've learned to ignore it."
• Bromsby, when talking about wizardry, understanding magic, and the practice of arcane magic with Ceilthanus: "I've studied the Art. I understand your method. I could walk with crutches too, but I don't."
• Krombholz, on appreciating the artwork in Haddin's house: "Dwarves are great painters."

Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc

Music for this session was:

• The Rock by Hans Zimmer
• Samurai 7 by Kaoru Wada
• The Spirit by David Newman
• Thor by Patrick Doyle
• The Witcher 3 by Percival & Marcin Przybylowicz

I extracted the image from the PDF, resized it to make it about 50 pixels per inch based on the size of the squares, and then created a PDF to print out at the poster sheet printer at Office Depot. It was well appreciated by my party again. The scale of the battle turned out not to need the full scope of the map, at least so far. We shall see how the next part goes. As is typical for ending a session in mid battle, we took several pictures of the map to make sure we could put things back the way we ended them. I'll try to post some of those pictures I collected them from the players from the end of the session which were taken to so that we can get everything set back up for the next session.

I really liked the images of Haddin's art from the adventure, and I think my players did as well. I also used some of the original art created by Epiphanis (from his Some character illustrations for WotBS post).

The battle of the Ja-Laffa residence

I found the discussion and map of Haddin's estate a bit confusing, too. I decided that the lower floor was simply a barn which could only be accessed from the outside (it's very Swiss ). I may have done something with a not-goblin on a hill as well (goblins seemed out of place, so I made them halflings instead). The downside of that approach was that the bad guys had to come up stairs to get to into the house, which meant the heroes could pick them off one by one -- it was way too easy, although the halfling and skeletons coming through the back door nearly killed Torrent.

Bill T. said:

I found the discussion and map of Haddin's estate a bit confusing, too. I decided that the lower floor was simply a barn which could only be accessed from the outside (it's very Swiss ).

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That's an interesting take. And Swiss styling would be appropriate for the area, certainly!

I may have done something with a not-goblin on a hill as well (goblins seemed out of place, so I made them halflings instead).

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Goblins have a very low appearance rate in the adventure it seems, and I didn't have a problem with Ragesia using all races in their army. However, now that you say that I wish I had included one as a gnome or a halfling, to underscore that while there are different races associated with some of the political factions involved, this war is much more about the nations rather than the races involved. With the noted exception of Shahalesti; and their allegiance is to their leader, not their race.

The party will figure all of this out in time, though.

The downside of that approach was that the bad guys had to come up stairs to get to into the house, which meant the heroes could pick them off one by one -- it was way too easy, although the halfling and skeletons coming through the back door nearly killed Torrent.

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Even without the stairs, just having the doors as choke points was a big tactical advantage used by my party. While there were a few big hits, overall this battle felt less dangerous for my party than the Gauntlet run against the Black Horse bounty hunters in Act Four.

Battle map at the end of Session 08

Overview of whole map and board as we were ending for the evening.


Long shot of main area.


Long shot of main area from different angle.


Close up of house.

Session 09 - Dec 14, 2016

Player Summary

The Scouring of Gate Pass
Act Five: The Inquisitor (cont.)

Gath continues to hold the front door closed. Once again, he can feel vibration through the door as though someone pounding or beating on the door, but it doesn't even budge with the efforts the opponent is making. Dom takes a healing potion, while Bosma remains positioned to help Gath.

Out the back door, the bugbear moves and attacks the goblin, who is caught off guard by the betrayal. Ceilthanus and Krombholz take the opportunity to team up on the remaining skeleton, and soon dispatch it. Inside, Gath continues to feel the vibrations and pounding on the door, but like the last time, and unlike the first time, the door doesn't budge in the slightest in response to the efforts of their opponents.

The silence ends, and Torrent uses her magic to help heal Dom. While the bugbear continues to attack the goblin, Krombholz maneuvers back, to reload his crossbow and line for a shot. However, he sees Inquisitor Boreus, Smiley and soldier approaching around the corner, and calls out a warning. In response, Bosma calls for the group to help Ceilthanus and Krombholz. Gath tries to open the door; it doesn't budge in response to his efforts. He abandons it and heads to the back of the house.

The bugbear kills the goblin, and Haddin directs him to kill Inquisitor Boreus. Boreus casts a spell, and the bugbear turns on Haddin instead, injuring him. Ceilthanus changes tactics to attack the bugbear. Smiley advances forwards, and swings his axe. He scores a hit on the Haddin in the doorway, and the aged wizard drops to the ground. The forces outside turn on Ceilthanus, just as Dom and Torrent move out to help.

The battle still looks very tense, when Bromsby moves out the door. Assessing the positions of his foes, he casts a Color Spray that catches the remaining forces, and none are able to resist his magic. The party quickly swarms and dispatches the stunned opponents. Dom checks Haddin, but it is too late.

Bromsby returns inside, and keeps Crystin from going round the corner. She is distraught but also strangely affected by her father's death, saying that she feels like she can think clearly for the first time in years.

The party burns the corpses of their foes, then buries Hadden in a cairn near the other two carins, of his wife and brother, building it from stones taken from the wall. A watch is placed for the rest of the night, but no troubles occur. The house is searched for equipment and supplies. Ceilthanus speculates that there must be a hidden compartment they have not found, where Haddin kept his spellbook, but no such compartment or secret cache is found.

In the early morning, the party packs up their supplies, and discusses the logistics. They settle on one horse per pair of people, with a skill rider on the first horse leading a second horse. Bosma and Torrent on Hitcher, leading Gath and Crystin. Krombholz and Bromsby on Krombholz's horse, leading Ceilthanus and Dom. They place blindfolds on the horses in an attempt to keep the horses from spooking in the Fire Forest. After carefully coaxing their chosen mounts to drink the potions of Stand the Heat, the party members consume their own potions, and head down the road toward the Fire Forest of Innenotdar.

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Story Deviation & Extra Details

Inquisitor Boreus is described as patient and cautious. I felt that he would stay focused on the known danger and on his goal, but not ignore what he encountered on the way. In a way, this proved a successful tactic for him, as his group did succeed in killing Haddin. I had expected to have deal with the old wizard on the trip, and find myself actually relieved a bit that I will only have two NPCs with the party to juggle rather than three inside the Fire Forest.

The goblin that was stationed out front never came into play, and was never spotted by the party. He fled, and will eventually provide a report to Guthwulf, albeit a limited one that did not see that action that happened at the back side of the house.

The party actually spent a fair amount of time between the last session and in this session figuring out the logistics of getting through the Fire Forest. They have compromised for speed and skills on handling the horses. Between the potions that Torrent brought and the ones they acquired from Diogenes at the School of War, they had 24. With six party members, two NPCs, and four horses, they have enough to go for two full days. The encumbered horses will still move faster on a road than a gnome or dwarf will, and with each pair of horses being lead by an experienced rider, they feel like they are in good shape to get through the forest. It's a good plan, actually; they just aren't prepared for Indomitability.

We ended the session before I could have Crystin talk much about the last few days. I want her to be aware of the people who have tried recently to get through the Fire Forest. It's discussed in the first adventure as being perceived as impassable, but with the remains of Durval and his family, and with the wreckage of the old gnomish wagon at the bottom of the gorge, it is clear that some have tried it before. Since in my campaign, I made Stand the Heat a recent innovation, I am considering having the gnomish wagon be not that old, and instead be group fleeing the inquisition from Gabal's School of War, brining with them most of the School's supply and notes. Either that, or I will remove the stash of Stand the Heat. In any case, Crystin is aware of who has tried recently, and I want her to speak to the party about them before their remains are encountered.

Tactical Notes and Conversions

After the first attempt to open the door failed, Boreus used a Wand of Hold Portal to keep it sealed, then ordered one of his soldiers to continue to beat on it until he was called. He then lead Smiley and the other soldier to the back. The concept was to seal the party in, then summon fire elementals to descend down the chimney to attack the party. As the words of power spell Servitor could be boosted to summon 1d4+1, and as a fire spell it would be empowered, this could have been a large number of small fire elements descending into the house. As it happens, the timing did not quiet work.

The spell that Boreus did use is Suppress, which allows another ongoing spell to be suppressed in effect for the duration of the Suppress spell.

Overall, the encounter was not as difficult as I had anticipated it being. Starting the encounter inside of a heavy stone structure provided the party a fortified position to work from, and the doors proved effective bottlenecks for the party to keep the encounter handled mostly at their pace. I tried to use some of that against the party as well, which did end up with the party wasting actions holding a door against a foe that had moved on, but on the whole this did not feel as risky to the party as a whole as the Black Horse mercenary fight did. Smiley was devastating, though.

Mechanics Issues

Small discussion about if you could maintain a free action, and delay. In this case, could a character using Bardic Performance which could be maintained as a free action, delay on their action. I ruled that as "no" because while maintaining it is a free action, you could only do free actions if you have your turn to take your action.

A stunned opponent drops whatever they are holding. When Smiley was stunned, he dropped his axe. Whenever an enlarge creature releases an item, it reverts to its normal size, and does not enlarge again should it be picked back up. Smiley was stunned at the end of the previous session by Bromsby's Ear-Piercing Scream, but both I and the players forgot this implication -- which we discussed at the time -- when this session resumed. After the battle was nearly over, when the Color Spray stunned him again, did we recall this. I decided not to change events that had happened earlier in the encounter by attempting to change the amount of damage that had been inflicted. The first time Bromsby used his spell, last session, I had forgotten Boreus's Reactive Counterspell and Rebuke Magic. In this session, I did remember, but he rolled terribly, failing to counter spell and then failing to make his Will save.

There are very poor mechanics defined in the Pathfinder or D&D system to determine what spooks a horse. I warned the players that taking the horses inside of a burning forest would require hourly DC 15 skill checks with Ride or Handle Animal, and increase the difficulty for handling the horses in combat, etc. We discussed the benefits for blinkering the horses, and settled on the fact that a blinkered horse only needed a DC 10 check. One of the player's pointed out that this is was the technique used for getting horses out of a burning barn, having done so in the past.

Notable player reactions

The players picked up on the two cairns there, and the two back story deaths, without any prompting from me. It's a nice touch to bring together the family. And now there are three.

Quote: "He's an acclaimed artists, now he's dead... Aren't his paintings going to be worth more now?"

They also picked up on the story that Haddin might be dominating his daughter, and her strange reaction to his death, and put it all together. While Ceilthanus's was disappointed they wouldn't have a high level caster with them, Bosma and Krombholz were glad that the party was not going to end up dominated by the old wizard as they traveled.

Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc

Music for this session was:

• Gladiator by Hans Zimmer
• National Treasure by Trevor Rabin
• Dune (1984 version) by Toto
• Spectre by Thomas Newman
• Lemony Snicket's A series of Unfortunate Events by Thomas Newman
• The Last Starfighter by Craig Safan

There were no additional props or handouts for this session.

I have promised Ceilthanus that I will get his expanded background to him before the next session. He has made up a backstory for his character, and the sword he carries, but I of course have made the truth be something that involves a bit more of the campaign story.

We did not play on December 28, because I was out with a cold. The next session will be January 11, 2017.

Characters at Level 03

Links to the party's third level character sheets.

Bosma Caladen, a human Bard 2 / Cavalier 1, played by Rick: View attachment Bosma.03.pdf

Bromsby Tarken, a gnome sorcerer (Elemental Air bloodline) 3, played by Steven: View attachment Bromsby.03.pdf

Ceilthanus, an elf magus (bladebound) 3, played by Alex: View attachment Ceilthanus.03.pdf

Damier Westgard ("Dom") a human cleric of Desna 3, played by Chris: View attachment Dom.03.pdf

Gath Finherum, a human fighter (Martial Master) 3, played by J.T.: View attachment Gath.03.pdf

Krombholz Berryman, a dwarf gunslinger (Bolt Ace) 3, played by Kirk: View attachment Krombholz.03.pdf

Session 10 - Jan 11, 2017

Player Summary
Act One: Out of the frying pan...

Scene One: Ending Suffering

The party entered the inferno of the Fire Forest of Innenotdar. Protected by the potions of Stand the Heat, they traveled the old Elfroad into the forest. The road was covered with about four inches of soot and ash from the fire, making it clear that the party was not the first to travel this road. A horse pulling a wagon, and a trio of humanoids had traveled the road. Bosma and Krombholz examined the tracks, and determined that the wagon took place earlier, perhaps a week ago, but the three humanoids were in the last day or two.

Crystin volunteered that three gnomes had taken a wagon into the fire forest a little more than a week ago, claiming they too had magic that would protect them, but she knew nothing of the other group. She had a foreboding sense of tragedy about the gnomes, and had asked them not to try, but they told her they were confident of their path. Bosma asked Crystin what she thought of the party's chance. She chewed her lip for a moment, and then replied haltingly, "You're my only hope." The party speculated that the gnomes might be from the School of War, and had access to Stand the Heat like the party.

A quarter-mile after entering the forest, the party came across the humanoid refugees. Or rather, they came across the smoldering piles of burnt flesh and blackened bones, the remains scattered as if they had been picked over by scavengers. Dom approached the remains to examine them, poking around smoldering corpses and nearly burning himself, as Bromsby noted "Everyone is so curious," mildly surprised at the number of things that captured people's interests.
Suddenly, one of the corpses moaned, as if in hideous torment, and sat up in a lurch. Mistaking the figure for a zombie, the party lashed out quickly. Krombholz took a snap shot that missed while Dom fumbled backwards flailing with his spear, but Bosma advanced quickly and landed solid hits with his spear. As Bosma spear's impaled figure, he was moaning "Kill me!" Slumping downward again, his last words were "Thank you..."

The party was disturbed greatly by this, and Dom checked the figure. He confirmed the man was now dead, but in his opinion, the man should have been dead already from the severity of his burns. He did not show the signs Dom would associate with necrotic energies and the undead. The party speculated briefly if everything in this forest was still alive while on fire for forty years. "Don't die here," Ceilthanus cautioned the group. "Unless you want to burn forever," Gath amended.
Noting the few daggers, coins, and spiked chain, as well as the clasp and metal bindings of a now obliterated book, Dom left everything with the figures. Instead, he took a minute to say a prayer for the deceased, with a plea that the dreams of their souls not be plagued by the way their death came to them, but be filled with better moments of the lives they had lived.

Scene Two: The Unnatural Hunt

About a mile down the road, the party heard some chittering and swooping in the branches overhead. Suddenly, something fell from them, careening straight at the horse Ceilthanus and Dom were riding, flapping wings to fall to the far side of them at the last moment. In close pursuit, a pair of enormous bats, wreathed in flames, broke from the forest. Bromsby identified the creature as fire mephit, while Bosma identified that bats as looking like Dire Bats, though he had no idea what it meant that there were completely consumed with fire but not dying, other than believing it to be the curse of the fire forest.

The creature starting hissing and crackling, then switch to chittering quickly in Common "Save me, save me, save me!" while attempting to keep the party members between it and the dire bats. The party made quick work of the two dire bats. Then, as the party started talking with the fire mephit, Gath and Ceilthanus assisted by Krombholz, took the extra effort to dismember the dead bats, removing their wings. This proved farsighted, as just moments after finishing, the fire on each bat reignited and both bats began flailing around on the ground, their blood pumping out quickly from the missing limbs.
The mephit spoke briefly with the party, introducing itself as Zzsss'hss Hssthz, but explaining that its name could be translated as Burning Ember in the cold language of Common. When asked about the gnomes, he said he had seen the people who had fallen into the gorge. The stone path across the gorge had crumbled, and they could not fly. The gorge was dry, it explained, unlike the nasty river which did not boil or steam. After just a few minutes of talking, Burning Ember left the party and flew back into the forest, with a final warning not to anger the forest.
Scene Three: A Dangerous Crossing

Arriving at the gorge described by the fire mephit Burning Ember, the party found the partially collapsed bridge. Bosma estimated that it should probably bare the weight of any one member of the group, but warned things could get risky with a horse. Stepping out a little way and looking down, Gath confirmed that there was a broken wagon at the bottom of the gorge sixty feet down, and not on fire. Bromsby volunteered to be lowered on a rope to examine the area, and check out what happened. A quick check showed that their rope did not start smoldering when stretch out, so Gath and Ceilthanus worked to lower Bromsby down.

Examining the wagon, Bromsby found the bodies for three gnomes and a human, all baked and shriveled from the heat. He recognized all of them as fellow students from Gabal's School of War in Gate Pass. The gnomes were Hiddlerum, Fidhurn, and Gattlenik, and the human was an abjurer named Tamwhet. Gattlenik was known for his alchemical ability and potion crafting. Knowing that known of them were gifted with natural magical talent, he went looking to see if their spellbooks survived. He found a small chest tied under the lead seat, still intact after the fall. Inside, he found four spellbooks hat had become very fragile after a week in the oven level heat, twelve potions identified as Stand the Heat, a wand, and a bag with a mixture of gold and gems. The party retrieved the case, and Bromsby went searching again, retrieving Gattlenik's signet ring, but no other significant things. On the way back up, he realized that the dozens of small candlelight flickers from under the bridge were actually small bats.
Warning the party that crossing the bridge could awaken a swarm of flaming bats, Bromsby volunteered to cross the bridge first. Moving quietly by himself, he crossed without incident. Following Bromsby's need, the party followed one by one, with Torrent and Dom both removing their to insure their chance of success. Finally, only Krombholz and Bosma remained. Bosma worked to guide the horses over, coaxing them to cross on the narrow stable region, attempting to have them move slowly to avoid disturbing the bats. The bridge creaked and shifted, but he lead Hitcher and Ceilthanus' horse across. While trying to lead Gath's horse across, he failed to guide it well enough, and the bats did erupt as a flaming swarm. The horse attempted to bolt, but spooked by the flaming bats and the swaying bridge, caused another piece of the bridge to collapse, slipping and falling with it. Bosma made it back, and Krombholz raced forward, getting his mount to plow through the swarm and jump the chasm successfully, but causing another portion of the bridge to collapse.
Scene Four: Devil Looking Over

As the party moved along the road, several people in the party noted a burst of flames behind them and off a bit into the burning forest, like hundreds of chrysanthemums made of fire blossoming and exploding at once. Despite some teasing about being curious cats, the party opted to ignore one more strange aspect of the fire forest, and push on. Nearly half an hour later, as they came to another ravine spanned by a stone bridge, a creature much like a dog with a collar and broken chain got up from the side of the road in the burning brush, and moved slowly onto the road. Holding a femur bone in the center of its mouth, it came to the center of the road, and carefully placed the femur down right in front of the bridge. Ceilthanus identified the creature as a hell hound, and the party halted to see what the creature would do. After putting the bone down, it backed away slowly for about ten feet, observing the party carefully before turning and trotting away into the forest.

The party crossed the bridge quickly, and kept a look out for the creature, but found no threats. Something with terribly sharp claws had carefully carved a message on bone in Common: "Leave the case. Cooperate, and we might find an arrangement to spare your lives. Carry this with you if you wish to bargain."

After considering for a moment the idea of leaving the travel chest retrieved from the gnome's wagon, the party rejected the notion of turning over the adamantine case. Tossing the femur into the forest, they headed on down the road.

Scene Five: Infernal Harrier

About ten minutes after throwing away the bone, two small eruptions of flame both of them like chrysanthemums blossoming, appear in the midst of the party. A devil appeared, with a collar and broken chain around its need connecting in a chain of fire to a hell hound with a broken chain collar as well. As the fire of their arrival dissipated, so did the fiery chain connecting them. The tattered brown cloak whipped around the green scaled body of the devil, its eyes glowing with infernal fire, and its beard wrthing and biting like a nest of vipers. Its left hand has only four fingers, and the scaled, desiccated pinky finger hung on a cord around its neck. Ceilthanus identified it as a bearded devil, and its sudden appearance as a form of teleportation, but did not understand what caused the eruption of elemental fire as part of the arrival.

Speaking quickly, the devil greeted the party with a toothy smile. "Smart negotiators always obey the letter of any contract. Unfortunately, I have already signed one. I do so appreciate your spirit.” The hell hound immediately leaped forward to attack, sending his fiery breath to immolate Krombholz, Bromsy, and their mount. Ceilthanus called out a warning about the bearded devil, and prepared himself for a difficult fight, casting Shield to protect himself. Bromsby dismounted away from the hell hound, and moved into position, casting color spray on it, stunning the beast. He called a quick warning to Bosma, that the devil might be more powerful than they can handle. Bosma recalled the rumor Torrent had shared with the party a few days ago, about the last courier arriving via teleportation as burned husk, and wondered if only creatures immune to fire could now teleport, while starting an inspiring stanza to help the party rally against the devil. Crystin attempting to use a magical effect on the devil, but it proved too strong, shrugging off her efforts. Krombholz showed his grit firing a shot at the hell hound that grazed across its skull. The bearded proceeded to lash out with his glaive at the party, striking at Dom and leaving a razor thin cut that continue to bleed, but missing his strike against Ceilthanus because of his magical defenses. Gath closed with the devil, and struck out a with a might blow, which did no harm to the devil. Dom channeled energy to heal himself and his allies, and found that the thin cut by the bearded devil's glaive resisted him; he only barely managed to overcome the infernal power of the wound, with only a trickle of energy to help his allies. Torrent dismounted as well, and called forth an ocean wave to overwhelm the bearded devil, but it broke upon the devil's squat stance and did not move up.

Ceilthanus moved up to fight the bearded devil, striking with Meetima Salka. He managed to injure the devil with his black blade, but did not over come all of its damage reduction. Bromsby attempted to use an electrically charged Ear-Piercing Scream on the devil, but it remained unphased by the attack. Crystin focused again on the devil, her eyes flashing eerily for a moment, before a small trickle of ichor flowed from the devil's nose. "You are more powerful than you look, but not enough to save you," the devil told her.

Having seen Gath's efforts against the devil, Bosma pulled out his oil of magic weapon and applied it to his spear. Krombholz took another shot on the hell hound, as well as driving his horse to attack the creature, and between his bolts and horses kicks, the hell hound began to show some signs of fatiguing already in the battle. The bearded devil took at step back and called forth a malignant force. Six figures rose up through the ashes, blubbering bodies covered in ash and pus, with dripping tumorous faces. Immediately they struck out, a pair each ineffectually attacking Krombholz and Gath, but doing well against Krombholz horse as well as Dom's mount.

Frantically trying to find something effective, Gath drew the alchemical short short he acquired from Flaganus Mortus, the wyvern pilot, and struck the devil a quick blow that it felt, despite its strong defenses. Dom once again healed his allies with a Channel Energy, this time healing much more. Torrent paused, asking Bosma "How do you want to handle this?"

"All together, let's take that thing down," Bosma replied.

To be Continued

---

Story Deviation & Extra Details

One of the players recently read the post by the Angry GM blogger on how to run combat like a dolphin, and shared it with the group. While we discussed the merits and weaknesses of his approach, we generally agreed that the emphasis on a narrative format helped the flow of the game. I spent some extra effort trying to recap and frame the situation for each player at the start of their action, and it seemed like it might have improved the game slightly, though I still felt a bit awkward with it at times. Practice makes perfect, of course, and the players generally responded in kind. Some of the things I want to do later in the game leverage greater narrative and story involvement for the characters, so I think the effort it worth while.

Based on the earlier campaign element that Stand the Heat is a recent innovation shared with Gate Pass by Seaquen, I decided that the gnome wagon was an attempt to take most of the Stand the Heat produced by Gabal's School away from the oncoming Ragesian Scourge. In that case, it would make sense that the characters who had studied at the School of War would recognize these them, even if they had not heard of this before. Plus, given the nature of the old Elfroad, all travel would pass in front of Crystin and Haddin's farmhouse. I had Crystin be aware of one group, the gnomes, but having missed the other group.

Durval, I imagined, was attempting to flee the Scourge as well, and hope that things would be clear enough for he and his family to make it through on Endure Elements if they stayed on the road.

Since names tend to make places and people more real, I had the names for the gnomes, as well as their human compatriot, ready. As a little bit of additional backstory, Gattlenik was a nephew of Fogo Henning, the Instructor of Illusions at Lyceum Academy, so the signet ring may provide some additional opportunities for the party when they get to Seaquen. I also had the mephit's name in Ignan ("Zzsss'hss Hssthz") and Common, as "Burning Ember" which came up, and for the Hell Hound, Purvotch, which has not yet come up.

I have described to the party how fragile the books are after essentially baking in the ravine for a week, and they have decided they will not try to handle them any more while in the fire forest. I will have the hand outs for the spellbooks and formula book ready before next session, though, just in case they decide to risk examining them in the Seela village.

Since we ended the session in the middle of a fight, I have attempted to record extra details about the fight for my players, so they can resume with a feel for what was just happening.

Tactical Notes and Conversions

After looking at Occult Adventures, I decided not to use the psychic class for Cyrstin, and instead stay with sorcerer. However, I did decide to change her to the Psychic Bloodline from Occult Adventures, giving her spells a very different look and feel, but not introducing too many new mechanics.

I wrestled a bit with how to make Kazyk a viable challenge for my over-sized party. I could not give him level or hit dice as that would move him outside the range of Lesser Planar Ally. Inspired by the image I found for a hell hound with a collar and broken chain that alludes back to back to the collar that Kazyk wears, I made this a magic item that allows an outsider to transport another outsider along with it when using its Greater Teleport ability. When Kazyk teleports, he can bring Purvotch the hell hound along with him. I considering give him a magic weapon as well, with a slightly different history, but decided against that for the initial encounter.

Mechanics Issues

We started using the Wound Threshold optional rules, but applied only to Wound Points. This was always the intent in the campaign, but all of the optional rules turned out to be a bit much to swallow in the first adventure as my players adjusted, so this one was delayed. It has emphasized that wounds are dangerous issues for characters, and something to be avoided. In play this time, it did not come up as no one really hit the point of wounds, but they all commented on it and are aware of it.

To cross the bridge, I used the stealth check for the individual characters. To lead a horse across and make it try to be stealthy I had them make a handle animal check to push the animal for a trick it didn't know, effectively "walk softly." After we were halfway through leading the horses over one by one, I realized that the horses drastically exceeded the weight limit on the bridge, but having already allowed one across, I continue with the same mechanic. They lost a horse anyway, and are slowed down enough that they are worried but, already having the extra potions from the same area made them feel confident enough that they could make it through. Except that they feel like it is risky to go back know with their horses, which I feel works well for the adventure.

The final fight is proving interesting in the opening rounds, as the Armor as Damage Reduction rules make the stacking damage reduction of this natural armor and normal damage reduction essentially impossible to overcome at all, without using either magic or silver. Chris was fairly distracted with some work calls and emails during the game, and has completely forgotten that he has the Soul Shroud which would obviously help dramatically in this encounter. Some of the players are worried that they cannot win this fight; I am pretty sure they will without too much trouble, but having the concern at the start of the encounter is good.

Notable player reactions

The player summary does not emphasize enough the role play that is going on with Ceilthanus and his sword. He is playing up the interactions with this sword, and how disappointed he is that, after all the family legends of the brilliant advisor the sword was, he find is to so... average. Also, a nice little bit on his reluctance to oil the blade inside of a fire forest, while the sword observing that it would not be burned by the fire. Meanwhile, Gath's reaction was expressed as "Your sword talks to you. In your head. And only you can hear it. Sure..."

I was really unsure how the group would respond to Dulvar. Turns out that all the damage done on him was done by Bosma, making for some interesting reactions for that character. He now has killed two people he is not really sure he should have, and it weighs on him.

I am very much looking forward to how they respond to Incompatibility's Offer Indomitability's Offer, and what they do in response. The more things came up, the more the party's discussion turned to "how do we get through this in time," and I suspect they will try to rush through the exploration of things, feeling trapped by the fire.

Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc

Music for this session was:

* Victor Frankenstein by Craig Armstrong
* Backdraft by Hans Zimmer
* Batman Begins by Hanz Zimmer & James Newton Howard
* The Bourne Identify by John Powell
* Casino Royale by Nicholas Dodd
* Oblivion by M83
* Prestige by David Julyan

This play list, at 6 1/2 hours, was way longer than the session, which we typically play for about 3 hours. I may end up using the same list for the next session. I definitely was aiming for more of a moody mix, less action driven than the past several sessions.

I printed out the map for Trial by Fire from the 4E version, and had it ready in case the party got there, with the intention to share the general Trail by Fire location map with the party when they got through the encounter. However, we did not get that far in this session, and I didn't print out any other map locations, instead using our traditional vinyl battle mat.

I used a pintrest image for a burning zombie to show for Durval, and another image gathered from deviantart to show for the hell hound.

Edits:
2017-01-17: Fixed a humerous spell correction that a reread would have caught. Left it as strikethrough for others to enjoy. Fixed duplicate word, and character name spelling.

I'm amused by the typo of "Incompatibility." Instead of a flaming stag, it's a frost octopus - trapped in ice, unable to harm the party. It's influence on the forest is to make nuts always slightly too big to fit into your mouth in one bite.

RangerWickett said:

I'm amused by the typo of "Incompatibility." Instead of a flaming stag, it's a frost octopus - trapped in ice, unable to harm the party. It's influence on the forest is to make nuts always slightly too big to fit into your mouth in one bite.

Click to expand...

I was laughing on reading this. I left the spelling checker correct my mistake and didn't read closely to what it was fixing. I am guessing my original text was very badly mangled! Fixed it now, but left the original as a strike through for others to enjoy.

But if a biomancy created frost octopus shows up later in the campaign, it will be because of this. Thanks for making me laugh at my own mistakes!