Savage Korvosa Session 12

A dozen sessions already. Does it seem like it has been that long? Regardless, the crew continues to investigate a series of killings in Old Korvosa that have largely been centered on the Shingles of Bridgefront. Last session, they learned even more about the Shiver Killings, were unable to stop the tragic death of one of the witnesses, and began a stake-out of the Sanctuary. The players are pretty much convinced that the asylum has something to do with what is going on. During the stake-out, Pop was sent off to get some late night coffee. He received a message from Mac that some of the Sanctuary’s orderlies were heading his way and so he ducked down a dark alley. As the orderlies began to go by, a loud buzzing rose from deeper in the darkness of the alley. And that is where we will pick up after the break.

Adam rejoined us after missing a couple of sessions and Jen was unable to make it this session.

As always, my GM comments are in italics.

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Shadowdark 0-Level Session 2

We began our 0-level play last week with four deaths. The Woodcutter became a “snackrifice” to a pair of hungry wolves, allowing the others to get away. Then, as they neared their destination of Grimhaven, a small flock of stingbats approached from the nearby marshes and were able to feast on the Astrologer, the Blacksmith, and the Butcher. The Beggar ran as they others were swamped by the stingbats and I wasn’t wearing my stingbat shirt! Yes, shameless marketing for the Arcane Library.

This week, the Beggar’s player was unable to attend so three other players played two characters each. We had a Glovemaker and Weaver (Rachel), Sage and Wainwright (RJ), Squire and Candlemaker (Jen) all make their way closer to Grimhaven as the Beggar ran off into the approaching night.

With the extra week to do a little preparation, I started to flesh out the Borderlands…largely borrowing from various published sources. Frandor’s Keep by Kenzer & Co is serving as the basis for our Grimhaven and, of course, a Borderlands source. Instead of the original, I’m using the Goodman Games “reincarnated” version, Into the Borderlands. No particular reason for picking this version over the original outside of I have it and I wanted to read it anyways. Lastly, I took the day off of work and spent most of the morning prepping an adventure for this session based on Sersa Victory’s Tomb of the Dusk Queen. I modified a number of bits to fit our game and to make it a little less harsh on 0-level characters. Some inspiration and background information for the adventure was provided by Clarshh’s Sepulchre by Willie Walsh in Dungeon Magazine #53…only a handful of issues before my pre-4e Dungeon collection is complete! There may be potential spoilers for any of these products below the break…especially Tomb of the Dusk Queen.

We pick up with the characters running for Grimhaven, leaving the stingbats and their fallen companions behind. As always, my GM comments are in italics.

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Savage Korvosa Session 11

Previously on Savage Korvosa, the investigators had been looking into a series of killings where the victims, all shiver addicts, had their torsos ripped open from the inside AND related killings associated with whatever things had come out of the victims torsos. Lieutenant Divo Figus of the Korvosan Guard had elicited their help with these killings as pressure was coming down the chain of command. During the course of the investigation, the player characters had gotten caught up with the street gangs of Bridgefront’s Shingles, found and killed one of these creatures, a spider-eel thing that had been spawning other spider-eel things, became very suspicious of the role of The Sanctuary in all of this, became a bit traumatized by another of these creatures…a jellyfish thing…that was already deceased, warned off of continuing the investigation by Divo (wink, wink…keep doing it on the down low) as that was what was now coming down the chain of command, and had met, befriended–or otherwise interacted–with a good number of Korvosan residents, particularly in Old Korvosa.

These investigations have been going on for two or three weeks in game time and we pick up with it on 9 Pharast after the break.

Adam (and thus Aimar) was missing. Jen (and thus Isabella) was back after missing a couple of sessions.

As always, my GM comments are in italics in the below.

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Shadowdark Session 0-level

Last week, our current Shadowdark resulted in a TPK. The party got in over their heads a bit and, as is so often the case, chose to not cut their losses or abandon their companions to their fate. To a character, they went done fighting. The last to go, Justo the Pit Fighter, simply refused to back down from the fight (plus the monster was just going to chase him anyways unless he came up with some clever way of escaping). I decided–quickly–following the TPK that we would start with 0-level characters and shared that with the players. Then I had to come up with something we’d do…which I won’t share quite yet. I didn’t want to just continue with the game. I tossed and turned (figuratively and literally) much of the week out what to do next. Settling on something and then, also as is so often the case, tossing it aside and turning to something else before finally settling on what I’ve settled on…which I won’t share quite yet.

This week we spent some time rolling up some 0-level characters and got started. During the week, I decided to tweak the Shadowdark rules for 0-level characters and the Gauntlet. Not because they are bad or anything, but because I just wanted something a bit different. My modifications are largely based on stuff out of Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) and I’ll share these after the break and before getting to what happened in the session.

My GM comments, as usual, are in italics.

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Savage Korvosa Session 10

The last session left the characters a little unsettled after witnessing the victims and killer resulting from the most recent Shiver Killing. The jellyfish thing had already led at least one of the discovering Korvosan Guard to kill himself, another drinking heavily, and Aimar swearing an oath to end whoever or whatever is behind all of this. When we last left the party, a few of them were having some drinks with Divo at the Laughing Wave Inn.

Unfortunately, neither Adam nor Jen were able to joins us this session and so Aimar and Isabella were missing. As always, my GM comments are in italics in the below. This one is going to be a bit rushed as we had a TPK during our Friday night Shadowdark game and I need to focus on getting ready for something new for that.

We pick up with Divo departing and Darcy, Mac, and Pop finishing off their drinks after the break.

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Savage Korvosa Session 9

At the conclusion of our prior session, the characters had found and killed the “queen” of the spider eels that had been killing folks in a relatively small area of the Shingles of Bridgefront. This queen had taken over a large “square” in the Shingles as her lair and filled it with webs and with eggs. This, hopefully, puts an end to the terrors in this area but left the overall tangled mystery of the Shiver Killings unraveled. The party has needed to take care of the eggs before continuing and that is where we pick up after the break. Oh, and Darcy still seemed to be mesmerized by the queen so maybe they should start with her first.

Jen (and thus Isabella) was missing. My GM comments, as usual, are in italics.

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Savage Korvosa Session 8

As we ended our last session, the party were meeting with Sergio, a local gang lord, and establishing a temporary “partnership.” The group had learned some different bits of information about the happenings going on in Bridgefront and the killings, including that Sergio was now looking for a “female, half-elf wearing black leathers” (aka Darcy)…not to kill her but to seek aid. The gang lord shared quite a bit of information about the killings in his territory…a lot more killings than the party had known about.

Sergio offered one of his men, Elvo, to lead the party deeper into the Shingles where Sergio’s men had gone missing. That’s where we’ll pick up after the break.

(For NPC names, at least for those of Chelish background, we have been using this name generator, Pathfinder/Golarion Name Generator (Cheliaxian).

All players were in attendance but Adam (Aimar) and Jen (Isabella) both had to drop off at different times so their PCs had other business to attend to.

I do not believe that there are spoilers for any published adventures below the break. My GM comments, as usual, are in italics.

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Savage Korvosa Session 7

At the end of our last session, Mac got a rude awakening on 4 Pharasma with a magical message from Detective Figus (aka Divo). A new “cookie-cutter” victim had been found and brought to the attention of the Korvosan Guard. Divo was now getting pressure from his Captain who was getting pressure from above to get this handled…still unofficially. The Detective had no additional information to share other than he would be very grateful to Mac and his crew if they can handle this.

At the start of this session, Mac messaged “his” crew that there was another victim and all agreed to meet that evening at the Happy Halfling and touch base.

Everyone was in attendance this session and we pick up with the group gathering after the break. As always, my GM comments are in italics.

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Savage Korvosa Session 6

In out last session, the party had spent some more time looking around Bridgefront for more information about the cookie-cutter creature. They found some. The party came across another victim and some spider-like webbing that led deeper into the Shingles. Exploring more, they actually encountered the creature…briefly…and retreated out to an alley with the latest victim. Meanwhile, Darcy, who had been slinking in the shadows and watching over the party, dealt with two individuals who appeared to be associated with Sergio…the gang leader in this area. Dealt with them fatally. After all of this activity, the party headed back to Korvosan mainland to get a drink. While relaxing, Darcy was slipped a note from her mentor to go home as he had some information for her.

That’s where we will pick up after the break. Adam had to work and missed this session. There should be no spoilers below; we pretty much made this up as we played. Hooray! My comments in italics as usual.

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Shadowdark Campaign Reboot

A couple of months ago, we rebooted our Shadowdark campaign. We kept the same characters–a couple of the characters had advanced to second level–but pretty much started over otherwise. We’re just going to keep things relatively simple and play various adventures/dungeons that have no necessary connection to each other. These adventures will lean fairly heavily into the adventures that are weird and bizarre and provide us some fun on a Friday night after a (typically) long week of work.

The starting characters include the following:

  • Alexandria (goes by Alex): A 1st level human priest played by Jen. She still has the Fist of Janda (a magical mace that can do some healing once per day) and the Training Sash of St. Taius (which allows a lawful individual to potentially avoid a successful attack against them once per day).
  • Denton: A 2nd level human wizard played by Todd.
  • Ellery: A 2nd level human ranger played by Rachel.
  • Norfek: A 2nd level dwarven paladin played by RJ. Norfek has the Rod of Cazin the Bringer of Death. It is sort of like a Rod of Lordly Might and can transform into different weapons (mace as the default, longsword, and battleaxe) and can breath fire once per day.

I’ll provide full details of the magic items later in the post. The paladin is based on the Knight of St. Ydris from Cursed Scroll #1. Instead of demonic possession, the paladin has smite which does pretty much the same thing. Some more basic details about the campaign (e.g., campaign premise and house rules) below the break.

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