ZEITGEIST The affirmative action racial recruitment team of the RHC

[Andrew Moreton]

The last session before the Apocalypse

Recovering from teleport effects in the dreaming the constables were delighted to discover armies on both sides of them , and resolved to run away to avoid getting caught in the middle. Seeing Rambylon to the South they made their way to him, avoiding a few showers of arrows with nimbleness and in the case of Ulvaar deflecting winds. As they fled William was able to identify the fighting factions but was suprised that fighting had broken out. Ulvaar was also carrying the persistently unconcious body of Andrei
Nearing the edge of the battlefield they ran into the Dire Fox leading the hunt and their response was to use flight magic to fly to lift themselves and their guide over the Fox and the Hunt, they worked out the fox was leading the hunt around but shrugged it off as Fey craziness.

At the edge of the battlefield they talked to the spectators and discovered what was happening in the dreaming. They decided on their own initiative to go and find out what had happened to Rock, as he was a Risuri citizen and Nevla could probably bring him back from the dead tommorrow if they needed to as she could learn a ressurection spell. They also decided they needed to speak with the Unseen court about getting home but had the feeling that the court would want them to find out who killed Rock or get them to frame someone so the decided to investigate Rocks death first in the hope that they would get less interference if it was an unofficial investigation.

Manuel was reminded by passing the Mill that he was still trying to find a way to stop technology intefering with the dreaming too much and he would have to get back to that when not trying to stop the assasination of the King and the end of the world as we know it.

When the group arrived in Clover they went straight to the mortuary noting the constant evening, it was decided that Manuel would have to be careful about stealth in the dreaming as one good roll could move the city from Noon to Midnight as he became the night. The moss cats at the mortuary were considered adorable and cute. By dint of fast talking and claiming to the the authorites they got Rock exhumed and investigated the body quickly spotting that the head wound was not vorpal, the arrow wound was not fatal , the body had too much blood in it for decapitation to be the cause of death and that he had been drugged. They then tried speak with dead but determined Rock;s spirit was not around either because this was a fake or due to magic (they at this point worked out the Sham-rock pun and confirmed that it was physically painful). Then they tried consulting with the spirits of Risur via Williams ability to contact other plane at will.
Here the dice decided to screw with them, there is a chance of the spirits lieing or answering randomly and on pretty much every important question they did. It was determined that Rock was
Dead
Undead
Possibly killed by agents of the Unseen court , the hedehog court, The Ash Wolf and the Voice of Rot as all of these were unclear.
He was not in the aburdist web
He was in the dreaming

The answers they got were very confusing , so they decided to go to the Krog tunnel and investigae there. They had not determined much except they needed to prepare some better divination magic when the tunnel started to flood, Ulvaar extended his life bubble to the few bystanders and the team prepared to ignore the flooding , the Fey Orca suprised them briefly before the first of them managed to get cut to pieces by getting caught between William, Ulvaar and Padme when Padme attacked triggerring extra attack from every crit she got it took 6 hits from Padme. 5 from William and 1 from Ulvaar for some truly ridiculous amont of damage in the region of 400+ and exploding, the other Orca ran away by teleporting. Nevla and Manuel combined to break the ice barrier with a cannon ball and a shatter spell, the satyrs ambushed them as they left the tunnel. Manuel getting stabbed by the teleporting satyr and confused by hte bard, Nevla dispelled the confusion as the group has experience that if there is a confused PC with a gun he will crit another pc and kill them particularly if there is a bard pc (this has happened in every other campaign with guns normally to Manuels player) the satyrs went down under a flurry of none lethal attacks. the group interrogated them and learned they had been hired by Darbony they then decided execution was not appropriate and took their services sending them out to bring back the witnesses to Rock's death. The inteference here decided them that it was time to speak to the courts.

They went to the palace to speak with the Unseen court first, meeting with the various court members went smoothly , they did get the book of Kelland but were careful not to incure an obligation to the Toadstool sage. They agreed to invsetigate the murder on Thiraldions behalf and ignored his clear intent that they should just go out and frame Olazdor. Then they went and spoke with the Hedgehog court they liked the straightforwardness of Olazdor, and Beshala explained she could get them home by waking she who writhes as she thought that may persuade them not to frame Olazdor for the Unseen court.

At the end of the session they discussed things they noticed that Asraby had not made it here but then realsised they last saw Copper Hat in the same place as Asraby. This implied Copper hat could travel to the dreaming when no one else could and at that point they remembered that they had always though Copper hat may be tied to the Voice of Rot and then decided his ability to move between the planes proved it. Nevla's player wants to do an Agatha Christie style reveal to the curts

Seperatly Ulvaar decided that Rock must be in the Absurdist Web and decided to reach in and pull him out.
I think he will be able to but at that point I ended the session.

Date of next session uncertain due to the apocalypse, Williams player started to develop Coronavirus symptoms on Tuesday night so we are not certain when the next session will be, looking at possibly doing as session over video link if delays continue enough.

However any break is likely to be shorter than the 6 month break in our Way of the Wicked campaign doe to Cancer of the GM. So we will finish this campaign possibly later than we would want
At which point I ended the session

 

[Echolocation]

Hope you and your players stay healthy

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Thanks, and the same to all reading this. For me unless I end up in hospital 2020 will not be a bad year, I had that in 2017 when I was really ill

 

[RangerWickett]

I am delighted at the shamrock and at the Agatha Christie. Thank you for sharing.

The only Corona I want to see is during the 2024 solar eclipse.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Technical problems solved and no serious illness the campaign will continue on Roll20 for the forseeable future

 

[Andrew Moreton]

After some initial problems we stopped using the video conference on Roll 20 and switched to Google Hangouts for the videoconference and kept roll20 for maps and some dice rolls. This took about 40 minutes .

Once we were able to start we returned to the constables planning conference at the Risuri Embassy with Ulvaar pulling a drunk and unconcious Rock from the Web. Before they woke him up they continued their discussion of tactics and who did it. With the available evidence they concluded that it was neither of the court leaders and by extension they ruled out the other court members and concluded it was a third party in fact Copper Hat working for the voice of Rot , they did decide they needed to find some evidence . They also settled on a modified Agatha Christie reveal with Nevla playing the role of Sherlock Holmes and William filling in as Doctor Watson, while they disguised Rock as a servant so they had him on hand for the big reveal. Though they thought that explaining this to Rock and getting him to stay in hiding would prove somewhat difficult.
At this time their witnesses were brought in by the satyrs and interrogated , the egg shells and we globe spotted by Alric reminded them of the stolen illusion eggs and confirmed their opinion about the webway being used in the tunnel and they decided they needed to go there with Williams new retrocognition spell.
(As an aside divinging past events is incredibly difficult in pathfinder the only spell we could find was Retrocognition a psychic spell published after this adventure ). Combining the retrocognition with True Seeing they observed the events of the past and confirmed Copper Hats involvement in the whole incident. William and Nevla then coordinated with the satyrs to prepare a musical accompaniment to their planned reveal of events to the fey courts..

They considered confronting Copper Hat but instead decided to save the confronation to one they could hav before the entire court. So they talked to Rock and taking advantage of his sense for the theatrical persuaded him that a dramatic reveal would be the best way to go and persuaded him to keep quite until the appropriate moment. They also invited Riffian and a random assortment of Fey they had met to the meeting to try and disguise why Copper Hat had been invited.

At the meeting Padme , Ulvaar and Manuel were posted to cover the exits to try and prevent Copper Hat escaping and they checked the room for webs. Manuel of course was pretty useless in a fight as he dared not deploy his mecha steam suit in the dreaming and was avoiding the use of even his own personnal guns as they could cause political disaster. They did note the univited arrival of the Borenbog and assumed it was Copper Hats bodyguard.

Nevla , William and their musical accomaniment began their reveal of the plot their method was to accuse each of the court members in turn before demonstrating why they could not have done it. Then they explained that if none of the members of the court could have done it but someone had gone to a lot of trouble to frame both of them, it must be someone else, who would have the audacity to try to frame the courts it could only be a powerful force such as one of the Fey Titans, but even more perpexingly of course here we have Rock and he is still alive !!(Gasps from all)
Who would have dared to set the courts against each other and still left Rock alive ! Only his frend Copper Hat servant of the Voice of Rot.
To which Copper Hat answered by asking them if they were sure that this was the denoument they had decided upon particularly as Tharizdon was not actually able to send them home. They confirmed that they were indeed certain that Copper Hat was the guilty party and at that point inititative was rolled. Copper Hat was able to make his escape via the webway hotly pursued by Padme, the rest of the team took on the Borenbog while William appealed to the Fey court for help . (At this point I made mistake assuming the Borenbogs defense kicked in after a full attack rather than a single attack which meant that he took far more damage than he should have done) several of the court joined in responding to Williams appeal and Williams use of the arsenal of dhbisu proved very effective against the Borenbog, meanwhile in the web way Padme was bogged down fighting the giant spiders, fortunatly Manuel joined her very rapidly and despite his completely ineffectual nature in hand to hand combat his mere presense flanked the spiders allowing Padme to to sneak attack damage which soon killed the spiders.

Soon the whole team joined in the pursuit and left the web way before the barrier raised by the fey courts in order to make sure that the nearby fey forces would not intervene too soon Manuel did his patent becoming the night instantly triggerring midnight and throwing the fey forces into confusion as they should not be fighting after dark , the rest of the team soon brough down Copper Hat and took him prisoner. He rapidly confessed to the whole story

 

[RangerWickett]

I love 'becoming the night.'

 

[Andrew Moreton]

It seemed appropriate that in the dreaming someone as stealhy and Batgoblin as Manuel should be able to bring the night , and he really is stealthy I believe the roll for that topped 60. The detail I forgot which threw them was that the night in the dreaming came without the usual stars and planets which had been there on previous nights. That convinced them the Ob was about to make a mess of things and they really needed to get back to the waking.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

We started with discussing what sort of mask William should have as a member of the unseen court. He settled on a mask which took on the features of the monarch of Risur whose power he was channelling at that time, it was left unclear if that was an accurate representation or one which fitted the modern image of that monarch.

Then the discussed if going and poking the Voice of Rot was really a good plan for getting back to the Wakening, after they decided their only other choice was to go and poke She Who Writhes and that involved swimming it became clear that the Voice of Rot was the best choice.

They began their epic ride across New Zealand or rather the dreaming with the full orchestral accompiniment and appreciated the humor. They did work out a fallback plan if the Voice of Rot killed them all, hopefully Kasavarina would at least like to bring Nevla back and Kasavarina had a wish spell this would bring Nevla back who could ressurect all of them from stored samples of flesh they had left just in case anyone ever got disintigrated. Nice of them to work out for me a solution to the problem of a TPK for me.

Reaching the Swamp they clairifed their plan and moved to where they expected to meet the Voice of Rot, William heard the spirits the VOR had trapped and realised he could temporarily control or free them. He was surprised that he could overcome the control of a Titan so I told them how the VOR had lost the eye which let it control spirits in a battle with an invading demon lord from Drakr and that they eye was not lost somewhere in Drakr or in the vaults of the clergy. They thought about this and decided that it was probably in Nic's control and explained how he could do such clever tricks with the ghost council and bringing anyone who died back as a ghost.

When the confronted the VOR their plan was to have Ulvaar and Nevla who had flying magic rapidly available to fly to the sword grab it and surrender while the rest of them distracted the VOR. Manuel decided that using his mecha would not offend any fey except the VOR around here and the VOR was in fact meant to be offended. William was supposed to keep it talking.

As soon as the dice became involved things started to go wrong the Voice of Rot moved suprisingly quickly and everyone except Manuel moved after it. Manuel decided to try and distract it by talking to it and explained their whole plan to it which instead of distracting it annoyed it. So the VOR moved to block their way forward but did not yet attack, at this point William hasted everyone, Ulvaar and Nevla took flight and Padme stood ready to stab anything which came out of the swamp. Ulvaar got close enough and rolled well enough to realise he was trying to use his tk to pull a sword out of a Treant , Nevla hit it with a searing ray.

Then Manuel bounced a cannon ball off the VOR and into the treant which annoyed both of them, so the VOR tried to eat Padme, Manuel and William and did a lot of damage to them all. William then boasted at the VOR and managed to get its attention enough that it replied poiting out he was doomed to failure and death. Nevla disintigrated the the Treant and Ulvaar swept in to collect the sword. Manuel reloaded and the VOR moved past the three none flying constables and tried to damage them but they all made the reflex saves, then Ulvaar surrended and with a cry of frustration the VOR threw everyone back to the Waking.

In the waking they were pleased to discover the Great Hunt was with them and willing to transport them to Slate, while they rested Manuel was pleased tp break out his steam boiler coffee machine and Mithral Waffle Iron (A real thing from the pathfinder equipment list), he had missed his coffee machine in the Dreaming. After resting they set out slowing themselved down slightly by diverting via the nearest Risuri military base to send warning radio messages to Flint and Slate (or rather leave a message for the base to send) saying the King was in danger of Assasination and Stansfield was a traitor to be arrested immediatly.

Arriving in Slate they were relieved to see the King had not been assasinated and that doppleganger precautions were being taken. Once Dame Jilliamn was certain it was them they were lead into the palace where the King was carrying out the wedding they spoke quietly at the back with Harkover and Jillian heard the Royal Skyseer was dead , and that no-one in Flint was replying to the Radio. They also heard that the Eladrin enclaves were using Teleport circles to evacuate to the Risuri colony and the Governor has requested food aid which was being sent. Given the treaty with the Eladrin and Athrylla's divinations of future disaster she has started to evacuate any enclave which will listen before the enclaves are struck by disaster.

Harkover moved over to the King and told him they needed to speak with the constables and he brought the wedding to an end. Then all the light went out and the constables immediatly realised they were being pulled into the Bleak gate. The King ordered all the wedding guests to head to the survival bunker. As they started to leave Catherine Romana walked in accomanpanied by Kula Rafsanjani, stroking a white cat which got applause. She began her speech which the king indicated they should allow as it gave time for the low level guests to get clear of ground zero. As she finished their speech the players immediatly wondered if the King could pull some stunt revoking her nobility and was pleased that he could indeed and ennoble them at the same time. As the 1812 Overture began with a crash of cannon fire the King gave Harkover his permission and the players where pleased that they were correct that he was a Dragon and on their side.

We left it there as it was too late to even attempt to finish the fight. Each of the players will be taking over one of the key NPC's initially Aodhan, Padme, Harkover and Jillian while Asraby will join later. They have alos realised they are down to a choice of Ulvaar or Nevla as a future Monarch which mean Queen Nevla will be along soon. Assuming I manage to kill Aodhan and hopefully block ressurection (Destruction spell preferred or Aodhan may just turn down ressurection)

 

[Andrew Moreton]

This session half of the battle at the Palace.

This has been a complicated fight so far , but seems to be going well for the players and I have barely managed to scratch the king.

We start off with the battle between Cula, Romana, the Ghost council and the King and associates.

Cula goes first and hits the players with a high powered version of scorching ray which does no actual damage as they have Fire Protection up and it bounces around, Then Nevla acts and casts Undeath to Death and manages to eliminate the Ghost council swarm and a Senior Ghost councellor which really hurts the bad guys.
Romana, the other Ghost counsellor and Cula all take damage from the King, William, and Padme , then Romana unleashes a massivley hyped up combat version of her familliar which does a lot of damage to william, then Manuel fires a salvo of rocket grenades which hurt the cat and Romana , and finally Harkover blinds Romana with a power word, then last in initiative order she acts and teleports out as she is badly injured and blind, Cula acts next and also teleports out. During this time a sniper hit the king for 1 hp damage.

They spent a lot of time worrying that the 1 hp of damage was a carrier or marker for some future nasty effect. Nevla flies up to look at who fired the shot , while up there she spots the Lantern on the roof and also the Undead dragon heading for them. She Disintigrates the Lantern while the sniper shoots William for 1 hp. The Kitty dies as Padme and William catch it between them and it gets shredded. The Ghost counsellor goes down to the King, Harkover , the Green Knight and Ulvaar who now can hit with a blade of positive energy.

As this fight ends Asraby joins them saying a large undead dragon is just behind them. Williams player then comments that it cannot be a Very old Dragon as the Ravener template requires an Ancient Dragon. The other players tell him to shut up, and if he had been in the same room would have thrown dice at him, the Dragons gets bigger and gains more hit dice and better spells.......

As the Dragon and 2 wraith hordes break into the throne room Nevla takes the chance to trigger a death ward effect on the party from an item. this only lasts for 5 rounds but renders the Wraiths completely useless for 5 rounds and stops the Ravener doing negative levels and charging its Soul ward.
The Dragon breaks through the wall and breathes acid over Harkover and the King , Protection from acid blocks the damage and Death ward blocks the level drain. Ulvaar lashes around wildly with a whip of positive energy and inflicts massive damage on the wraith squads. Everyone else piles onto the Ravener, it i not impressed until despite protests from Harkover the King puts it in a headlock.
It opens things up by Biting the King and crits but a quick prayer from Nevla forces it to reroll and its bit misses instead. Nevla spots a Lantern in the garden and disintigrates it. Everyone else piles onto the dragon except for Ulvaar who takes out the wraithes. William uses the Arsenal of Dhbisu and his sword becomes holy overcoming the Raveners DR combined with flanking and the dragon being grappled it starts to take a lot more damage, and is finished off when the sniper 'misses' the king and accidentally crits the Ravener. The players by this point have identifed the sniper and realise that she probably is not performing so poorly for the Ob by accident.
We then finished a bit early as the next combat against the professor, his goons, Romana and Cula would take too long.
They are expectin the professor as Manuel remembered there as a lecturer in practical Necromancy at the university who had written a paper on raising dragons as undead and was the only person who had been called before the Ethics committee more often than Manuel (on a yearly average)