Describe your last RPG session in more than 5 words.

Andvari

Hero
Did you mean to post this in the other thread? Either way, I'd like to hear more about this one.
You're right.

Abomination Vaults for Pathfinder 2E
What happened was my ranger scouted out a cave and discovered a gibbering mouther in there. He went back and relayed the information to the party. The bard succeeded a Recall Knowledge check and recalled the monster is vulnerable to bludgeoning damage. So I lent the paladin my +1 warhammer and equipped a bossed shield. We then collapsed on the monster by hitting it with the warhammer, the shield boss, telekinetic projectile and hydraulic push. Its sounds managed to confuse the bard for 1 turn. He attacked the cleric 3 times, but rolled low and missed.

The monster quickly died and I chopped it up with a hatchet to see if it had anything inside. It had a rope of climbing.
 

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Rescued by Spanish, stopped hating.
The characters in the "Privateers of the Caribbean" Honour & Intrigue campaign have been under a curse. It was lifted last session by a voodoo priestess, via individual dream-quests.

I was marooned on a small island, which had been what I feared most, but I'd been learning survival skills before the dream, and did fairly well. I had absolutely hated the Spanish, to the point of getting bonus damage against them. That was because (in backstory) I had been abandoned by a Spanish ship in mid-ocean. When a Spanish ship came along I swallowed my pride and accepted rescue. So I got to trade in my Boon of "Spanish killer" for a different one.
 

Avalon, the AD&D1e party.
. . . found the tomb opened, the false burial chamber intact, and the real, hidden chamber robbed. . . . Amber Dixon, who is a magician, a rebel against her upbringing, and in trouble with the local magical college for being too interested in necromancy.

. . . a voice who was either Amber Dixon, or really good at cold reading. We never saw her, and she got away somehow. There was a tent in the real tomb with personal effects, so Amber may well have really been there.
We went through the rest of the place thoroughly. The false burial chamber was full of traps, but those were intended to make you give up on it before you found the carefully-hidden gem with a demonic spirit in it. We exorcised that, and brought Yalazar's body and the assorted loot back to the village to get ourselves warm.

When we'd done that, we tried scrying for Amber Dixon with Magic Font and found her heading along a road, invisible, on foot. It was night so we could not tell where she was. The next morning, we set off hoping to catch her before she got to a priest and got a blessing to sever her connection with the personal effects that were helping us with the scrying. There's only one plausible road for her to have taken. A bit more scrying with Reflecting Pool made it clear she was moving at night and building igloos to shelter during the day.

After a bit more thought, it seems possible that Amber Dixon is a victim of the evil spirit that was in Yalazar's corpse and the demonic spirit in the gem. She was fool enough to seek out the tomb, but she may have been influenced from there onwards.
 
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Pathfinder 2e, Abomination Vaults

I ran the Beginner Box before starting AV so since the group is level 2 going into the first level of AV, I made some tweaks to the first part of the adventure. The previous session we wrapped up Menace Under Otari and I used the AV graveyard encounter as a transition between adventures to draw the group's attention to the Gauntlight.

This week's session they made their way up to investigate the strange light coming from the lighthouse. Instead of having the group fight the mitflits in the different rooms where they were present, I continued the example given in area A1 to not have the mitflits want to fight the group in the different rooms they were present in and instead showed signs they were present while having the mitflits continue to retreat back to A10 to report to Boss Skrawng. The session ended with them opening the door into A10 and seeing a large group of mitflits. This should help pose a challenge to the group, since they're level 2 and there are 6 of them.
 

Andvari

Hero
Great Pathfinder 2E session last night. In the graveyard the party had been investigating, I had a crypt basement which I though was a little boring. So I had added an obvious trap there for them to deal with. A foul smell of rotten eggs met them as they entered the place, which contained three parallel corridors, the entrance to each was covered by ancient, tattered curtains. Set in each corridor's walls were a few lion's head statues with a fist-sized hole in their mouths. All walls in the area were also covered with stacked niches containing skeletal or embalmed remains.

Taking a closer look at each corridor revealed the tiles within were more polished than those outside. The human rogue determined it looked like every single tile was a trigger of some sort. She tried pressing one with weak force, which was not enough to trigger the trap. For some reason, she decided to step on one, which did cause it to depress. Poison gas was immediately released from the lion heads. She sustained some damage while the rest fled upstairs. As the gas disippated they went down again.

The wood elf druid turned into a rat and tested out the tiles, discovering she could safely traverse them, not weighing enough to trigger them. In one of the corridors she found a a magic staff and a backpack with scrolls and coins - the gear belonging to their high elf wizard, who had been slain by vampires the day before.

The group's next goal was to open a set of double doors set in the western hallway without triggering the trap there. While the druid, in rat shape, took a look at the door, the dwarf ranger decided to investigate the tiles more closely, rolling a natural 1 and triggering it once again. The gas dealt a fair amount of damage to both the druid (I rolled 6, 6, 6 and 5 with 4d6). They ran back upstairs and healed up somewhat. (Two random encounter checks during the whole ordeal, but no shows - would have been zombies shambling out through the double doors, triggering the trap a third time, though out of range of the party)

They debated options. One was somehow stuffing the holes with the tattered (would have worked if they found a way to reach the lion heads without stepping on the tiles - too high up for a rat to reach). The rogue contemplated using a climbing kit to reach the double doors, using the niches (could have worked with some relatively easy Acrobatics or Athletics checks - and could have been combined with the previous idea).

In the end, the druid decided to use a scroll of shape wood to warp a large, wooden door bolt stolen from a previous adventure to create a balancing beam between a niche from near the corridor entrance to another near the double doors. Easy to traverse for a rat, but requiring Acrobatics rolls, if easy ones, for the rest.

The druid opened the door, but was spotted by a specter within the crypt behind it. The crypt had a pile of dismembered corpse parts, and the specter was busy assembling them into bodies. Several assembled bodies lay neatly spread about the room. The specter demanded who dared disturb its work. The druid tried trickery, saying she was sent by the vampire who ruled the graveyard. She failed her Deception check, so the specter attacked.

During the battle, the rest of the party made their Acrobatics checks to safely navigate the wooden beam across the trigger tiles, although the high elf witch had to spent a Hero Point to re-roll a dangerous failure. I asked one of the players to control their NPC companion (a human nomad princess they rescued from kobolds a while back - she's filling in as the paladin player couldn't make it. She's essentially fighter type character using reskinned cave bear stats).

They'd defeated similar spectres before (one assembling skeletons and another wights) in the graveyard pretty handidly, but this time did not go well. The specter could spend 1 action each turn to animate an assembled zombie (up to 8 in total). To their horror, the first zombie that rose was their former wizard friend. Unfortunately, the specter critically hit the nomad princess, who failed her will save to avoid being controlled by the specter. And since it was a crit failure, she would need to attempt a save after each turns to regain control (on a normal failure, you are controlled only 1 turn). Madness and chaos ensued as this hard-hitting NPC lays into the party and quickly dropping the rogue. Her stat sheet was bounced around between players as they hoped to find SOMEONE who could roll well on her Will saves or at least not roll high on her attacks, but to no avail. They kept rolling high when she attacked her friends and rolling low on her Will saves.

Things were looking quite dire, until a player asked if they could grant 1 of their hero points to the possessed nomad princess (as an NPC, I don't give her hero points). Another player made a good case for why she in particular might receive one, so I allowed it, and it was immediately spent to re-roll a failed Will save - into a success! Now focusing her damage on the specter instead of her friends, they quickly dealt with the monster, cleaned up the remaining zombies (mostly done by the high elf witch who now finally rolled high on her spell attacks), looted the valuables hidden in the tomb and cheered up the distraught nomad princess by complimenting the brawny woman on how hard she had hit them.

In one of the sarcophagi they found the vampire lord. They had previously defeated him, but he escaped as a cloud of mist while the party fled his minions. The party had earlier destroyed his comfortable, pillow-lined coffin, so they found the vampire lord awkardly resting on hard stonee, in the last undisturbed crypt besides one beyond a secret room (unknown to the vampire). They staked him, and as he was about to object, bathed him in holy water and religious symbols supplied to them by the Temple of Tyr, destroying him for good.

Returning to town to mend their wounds and obtain their reward from the city council, they went back to the graveyard the following day. A puzzle in the secret room had eluded them for now. They were stumped by a pillar in room's center, containing three niches stacked vertically, each labeled with a small plaque. The plaques read "Rock", "Scroll" and "Sword." They had tried putting a rock, a scroll and a sword in the corresponding niche, but it did nothing to open the two heavy, stone doors within the room. (I stole the puzzle idea from the CPRG, Legend of Grimrock 2)

But they'd found a clue in the vampire's library. One of his old books spoke of a renowned merchant who, through trade with the barbarian tribes, had learned a barbaric game known as "Rock, scroll, sword." The druid asked the nomad princess if she knew anything about this barbaric game. She laughed and told them it was the children's version of a game called "Rock, scroll, sword, beholder, xorn." Asked about how the game was played, she, without dropping a beat, told them "sword cuts scroll, scroll covers rock, rock squashes beholder, beholder disintegrates xorn, xorn resists sword, sword slays beholder, beholder neutralizes scroll, scroll banishes xorn, xorn eats rock, and as it always has, rock crushes sword." (Stolen from "rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock" and reworked for a fantasy setting).

They didn't quite remember that, but asked for each of the niches, what countered the object written on the corresponding plaque. After informing the nomad princess they did not possess a xorn, they settled for a scroll, a sword and a rock, at last opening the stone doors.

Out slinked four angry shadows who failed their Stealth checks. I placed my shadow miniatures on the table, as well as two gargoyles miniatures I had brought. (Two gargoyles had been flanking the door since the party had arrived - seemingly just statues, as far as they had been able to determine). The gargoyle miniatures unnerved the players notably, but the shadows were quickly dealt with, though they did manage to reduce the druid's panther companion's HP a good deal. Fortunately, the gargoyles were just statues, and the party were able to loot the tomb (belonging to aforementioned merchant) for riches and several magic items.

Lots of fun seeing the players work out how to deal with the trap, the puzzle, and the chaos caused by the NPC, as they desperately switched between which of them had to roll her attacks and saves.
 

aramis erak

Legend
Friday WFRP/TEW:
Progress! Sailing upwind to Bögenhaven.
The wind rules had them poling & tacking their way upwind on the Weissbruck Canal.
Several interesting encounters... they captured a pirate riverboat.
Sun T2K:
Settling in in risky campground.
I used google maps to find the local campground for where they are... then inserted 3 crashed jets (VMF-214 "Black Sheep" Harrier, VFA-103 "Jolly Rogers" FA-18 Hornet, Some MiG, and a Sea King Helicopter off the Nimitz.)

They raided the crashes for electronics parts, in hopes of building a shortwave radio to bounce signals and contact the ConUS...
 

They tried diplomacy. It failed.

PF2e Abomination Vaults

Last week the group left off opening the door into Boss Skrawng's room. The group decided to try diplomacy and told Boss they were there to investigate the strange light coming from the lighthouse. Being afraid of the ghost in the lighthouse, Boss was interested in this and began to blame the mushroom-eyed prince below for the strange light coming from the lighthouse. It looked like the PCs were going to avoid a fight, until the party explained what they knew so far about the keep and mentioned they killed the giant flies in another room. This enraged Boss, who definitely didn't need the flies to attack the nearby town of Otari. He ordered his mitflits to attack and a battle broke out. Once it became apparent the PCs were going to win, Boss surrendered along with a handful of the remaining mitflits. He offered them some gems if they'd forgive his attack and promised not to get in their way while they took care of the mushroom-eyed prince. When asked for proof the gems existed, he said they were held in a secret place no one else knew about. He agreed to draw them a map to get to the lighthouse and the group decided he should lead them there which he wasn't comfortable doing since the mitflits avoided the ghost in the lighthouse. The PCs decided to just carry him, having the remaining mitflits lead the way to avoid any traps.

Entering the lighthouse, they found a fresh pool of blood, a stairway up the tower as well as a door to the outside of the keep. They decided to look outside the keep to avoid being stuck in the tower by any threat from outside and found a couple ruined structures immediately outside. A functional rowboat with some fresh food supplies from a tavern in nearby Otari warned them they might not be alone in investigating the keep. Crossing a bridge to a small island near the keep, they discovered a library with a strange talking spirit light that demand the group bring it a shiny prize it was after in exchange for what it knew. Boss Skrawng was terrified of the spirit and broke free of the PCs grasp, running back towards the keep. A long javelin throw brought him down, but the PCs left him to escape figuring he was going to die anyhow. Moving on from the library, they found an art gallery depicting several paintings of familiar locations which is where we ended the session.
 



Voadam

Legend
AI Monster Truck Finale Fight

So this is the climax fight of module two of the Iron Gods Adventure path, a CR 8 AI robot boss for a level 6 party. I am running this in 5e and reskinned a One-Headed Clockwork Dragon from Kobold Press's Creature Codex. It had lots of things I wanted, the right CR, lots of attacks, some combat specials that were easy to reskin to the demonic Monster Truck theme.

My group of now level six marauders has been working the Mad Max fantasy city of Scrapwall for about a year now smashing their way up the gang hierarchies to take down the various minions of the insane demigod AI housed in a Monster Truck.

I had a new player to the game, everybody knew from past games. We got him set up, he's going to play the orcish personal mechanic of the Monster Truck who the AI has finally turned on in his insanity and alternately praising and offering power to, then turning on him, chaining him up and torturing him. Mechanically a half orc barbarian with a custom mechanic background. Magic fire resistant Mad Max half plate and a two handed wrench +1 (maul).

I have had great luck with reskinning Kobold Press monsters for my conversion game and I thought this one was perfect, a CR 2 above the party's level should be good to go. Normally I trust the mechanics enough to just fly at the party and go full throttle.

Here I hit on a bad enough overwhelming spike of damage that I ended up quick call retconning that attack amount.

The monster can spray oil on a cone to make people vulnerable to fire until after its next attack.

I had three PCs and a homunculus in a 10 foot wide corridor so the truck drew an opportunity attack from the mechanic to pin the four at the corridor bottleneck with a portcullis trap behind them. Round 1 I do the multiattack spray oil and three big bludgeoning attacks with a d6 fire damage on the two front liners, all four fail the DC 16 dex save and are covered in oil. Second round I did the recharge 6 fire breath.

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DC 16 dex saves again, none of them are dexy characters and again all four fail. 10d6 fire damage rolls 30, with vulnerability that is 60 damage each, 240 for the four of them. The PC's max hp with aid were 38, 62, 69, and the two tougher ones had taken about fifteen each from bludgeoning so all four gone, gone, gone.

One shot taking out three out of the four members of the party. Round 2. The monster still had about 150 hp to go after taking 20 so far and the new guy the only one left.

Not the drawn out back and forth climax fight I wanted. I did not want a TPK round 3. Damnit straight combat is usually fun, but I do not want to just TPK the group and be done an hour into the game. 5e is normally fine to just unload, as knocking down one PC can be fine, they will live and interesting decisions on healing or attacking for everyone else and multiple rounds of death saves. But if most everyone goes down it is usually game over and new PCs if not new game. Occasionally there can be captured scenario where the party wakes up prisoners instead of dead, but that is a bit hard to work, particularly on the spot instead of as a slaver module plot point.

Executive decision, that spike is too much mechanically for what is supposed to be a doable APL +2 CR, so 60 damage to the party divided four ways, not 60 damage to each. Homunculus taken out, cleric bloodied and concentration blown round two, artificer and hexblade hurt bad. We then proceed to do out a full on multiround combat using multiple powers and fun narrative stuff. The monster truck spins and attacks with rear wheels then rams ahead with its fiery grill. Great back and forth repartee between the Monster Truck and the now former mechanic, plot points uncovered in the mad AI's rantings, party cool points get highlighted, the monster truck does several on point reversals (robot artificer PC adware psychic damage attacks versus AI psychic damage immunity virus protection).

I hated pulling the punches on the flame breath, but the campaign dynamic I want is action movie fight, not save or die casual death TPK based on rolls.

It was fun, but I have a bad taste in my mouth from the round 2 TPK situation. We've been building up to this for months and I feel let down by the mechanics.

We did end with them dismantling the monster truck, "I wouldn't put it past you to activate a "Gravedigger" monster truck special ability where it comes back."

Which yes, I had thought about. :)
 
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