Here is the campaign log from our first Price of Immortality (PoI) session. This was written by Rachel (who plays Serena). My GM comments are in [italics and brackets.]
Note: There are, obviously, spoilers for the Price of Immortality trilogy below. This session was largely devoted to the earliest portion of the Crypt of the Everflame module.
We all awoke from a dream of torture and soul drain in a dungeon, to find ourselves still in Kassen, a small town in the country of Nirmathas in Golarion. [We had played on session with the character’s before I decided to use PoI. This comment is in reference to that.] Winter is about to begin in Kassen, a forestry town on the outskirts of Fangwood Forest. This time each year, there is a festival in honor of Ekat Kassen (the town’s founder), before which a chosen few go to the crypt where the founder was buried and light a lantern with the everflame in the crypt above Kassen’s sarcophagus. The everflame is used to light a flame for the winter as a sign/symbol of hope. To be chosen as one of the few to get the flame is a great honor. This year, five would-be adventurers were selected for this quest:
- Monte, a dwarf ranger who is an apprentice to Arnama, a very skilled ranger without much patience or the gift of gab.
- Cornichon, a gnome bard who is an apprentice to Jocyn, a performer at the Seven Silvers.
- Lilac, a half-orc rogue who is an apprentice to Jimes “Shortchange” Iggins, a halfling who works at the Seven Silvers and has a reputation for being nice and helpful despite his sticky fingers.
- Rodan, a half-elf cleric of Milani who is an acolyte to Father Rantal, a priest of Erastil, the god of agriculture and hunting.
- Serena, a half-elf monk who is an acolyte to Ilamara, a beautiful and exotic woman from Kadira who mostly keeps to herself except for working with acolytes occasionally.
[For those interested in running the PoI trilogy, Crypt of the Everflame has a short section on the town of Kassen which includes information about possible mentors for different characters based on class. Each gives some information about the mentor that is nicely incomplete but still pretty suggestive. I found this to be a nice touch and each mentor mentioned above is based on this.]
The five of us are to leave for Kassen’s tomb at noon the next day, and we have been told that it is two days away. Monte awoke this morning with only his hide armor, warhammer, and throwing axes, and a note (presumably from his mentor?) that said “I thought you were a survivalist.” Monte considers seeking out new gear, going after his mentor to retrieve his missing gear, or “borrowing” some items from a nearby farm, but finally decides to just head to the Seven Silvers.
[Each of the characters had been informed that they were to show up with only the absolute essentials in terms of gear–things like weapons, armor, holy symbols, etc.–and that everything else would be supplied for them. Monte was not very keen on this idea. His mentor, Arnama, who was not very fond of the gruff, materialistic dwarf, did, indeed, take his equipment and leave the note. She knew that Monte, a supposed survivalist, would show up with everything he thought might be useful and could carry. Definitely not in the spirit of the task.
Monte’s “borrowing” went so far as to entering the barn of a nearby farm, finding a shovel (and some lengths of rope) and getting ready to walk out with them before reconsidering. He decided that the potential trouble of having to explain what he was doing with them outweighed the benefit of taking them.]
In preparation for the next day’s trip, Lilac and Cornichon head out to see Mayor Uptal and ask him about the trip, since he went the previous year. At the Great Hall, the mayor tells them to have a drink and celebrate (although not too much) to prepare for the next day. Lilac asked if the mayor was treating them to the drink, so the mayor tosses them a coin, and tells them there will be a great feast when we return. Since it was clear the mayor would not be more forthcoming about what to expect on the trip to Kassen’s tomb, Cornichon and Lilac asked the mayor who last went for the flame besides him, so that they could seek out this person, but the mayor claimed he could not remember. When they questioned him whether there would be threats along the way, the mayor suggested that they check with Captain Wisslo (Kassen’s captain of the guard) or Arnama as to whether orcs or other dangers have been in the area.
[In the mayor’s defense, he did say that it had been a few years since any of the town’s youth had been sent to retrieve the flame. The past few years it had been he and some dignitaries who had done the task. He did offer to track down the names of the youth who had last gone but it would take a little time.
Note: Neither Lilac nor Cornichon followed up on the mayor’s suggestion to speak with Captain Wisslo or Arnama about potential dangers in the woods or on the trip. This is par for the course with my group…they specifically ask about something and, when offered the opportunity to go and get some info, they completely forget about it. They have some serious issues with focusing on anything for more than a few minutes and it is raising some serious concerns for me about running an Adventure Path after this. I don’t want to drag them along the “path” but if they can’t even followup on plot hooks that they specifically ask about, that’s what it would require.]
Meanwhile, Rodan has gone to the Seven Silvers for something to eat. There he is joined by Monte, Cornichon, and Lilac. Cornichon and Lilac enjoy their drink on the mayor’s coin while Monte grumbles about how his gear was stolen. Shortchange manages to bump into Lilac a couple of times and slips a couple of items to her that he says he will get back later. It seems that one of the items may have been one of Monte’s missing throwing axes, but Shortchange retrieved it from Lilac before Monte had a chance to reclaim it.
[Thomas asked for the theft of one of his axes with Monte’s near constant grumbling and obsession with his gear. ;)]
Asina, the 13-year-old daughter of Trelvar (the owner of the Seven Silvers), joins the four adventurers at the table briefly and says that she has heard we will have to fight ghosts and vampires on the way to get the flame. Cornichon also shares some stories he has heard, while his mentor Jocyn continues to sleep on the floor of the tavern. Unfortunately, I (Serena) missed these speculations as Ilamara required me to continue meditating and training at her home until shortly before we were to set out the next day.
[While it did “fit” with Serena’s character and her mentor for her to keep training to the last moment, that wasn’t the only reason Serena was kept out of the conversations to the point. Rachel had lost her voice and was having definite trouble speaking…this helped to limit her talking and let her rest her voice a bit. Who says that a GM can’t be a caring soul?]
The next morning, Monte goes to Shortchange and asks for his missing throwing axe. Shortchange says he does not have it and suggests that Monte look for it out back, then quickly locks the door behind him. After another brief interchange with Shortchange, Monte goes out back again (only to be locked out again) but manages to find his throwing axe stuck in the back of the door.
[Is there a better way to deal with an angry and grumpy dwarf than simply locking them out? I think not! Especially if the thing that is getting their beard all in a twist is right out back anyways…]
Monte, Lilac, and Cornichon get to the town square early, but notice just before 11:30am that no one else is out and about, which seems unusual, especially given that we are to leave and be seen off by the town at noon. Rodan arrives at the town square at 11:30am. I arrived at 11:45am with fresh bruises from Ilamara, who thought I had packed more than the bare necessities we were to bring with us.
[I don’t want to say too much about it yet but the writeup for Ilimara suggests that she may not be the most gentle or kind of mentors. When Serena left, I asked what “essentials” she was taking and the list include more than Ilimara thought appropriate (i.e., a couple of sunrods) and so she elected to teach Serena a harsh lesson…thus the bruises.]
After the noon bells rang, all of the townpeople came to the square dressed in black and looking mournful. The mayor came through the crowd carrying a tarnished lantern, followed by a wagon with five backpacks on it. Rodan takes the lantern, which is where we are to keep the everflame that we bring back to Kassen. There is a little cheering from the crowd as a backpack is passed to each of us, although many folks still look rather somber. After the mayor says a few words, the townspeople wave us off, some looking very serious and sorrowful, some with sly smiles.
[What is up with those sly smiles anyways? A few of the townsfolk had been giving them to the party for the last couple of days. I suppose the players might find out in the next session or two.]
Once we headed south out of eyeshot, we stopped briefly to check our packs and take stock of the resources we were given. In my pack I found 5 days rations, a winter blanket, a tarp/small tent, a full waterskin, hemp rope and a grappling hook, and 2 small pieces of paper that looked like parts of a map. The others’ packs held similar contents, although rather than having rope and a hook, someone else had flint and steel, someone else had torches, and a couple other essential items. I asked the others to see if they had pieces of the map in their packs and we fit all of our pieces together to form the map.
[I think Monte was checking out his backpack before you even started walking as was pretty disappointed in the backpacks’ equipment. I think his idea of being a survivalist is to have a metaphorical army-navy surplus store at his disposal.]
Monte indicated the way we should go and after a couple hours we made it to a logging camp, where folks did not look happy to see us and looked very suspiciously at Lilac. Monte told them we were headed to the flame and hoped that they could give us further direction, but they said they didn’t care and that we should leave. Monte said that he must have misread the map and suggested that we head back and take another path.
[Thomas rolled a natural 1 on Monte’s Survival check. Seemed appropriate that he picked the wrong trail to follow. It cost the party about four hours of travel time and, if they tarry too much more, they may run out of rations before getting back to Kassen. I sure hope that nothing else on the trip might delay them in their quest.]
After traveling two hours on the second path, we crossed a fallen tree. Just a bit past the tree, we heard a roar behind us and turn to see three orcs coming over the fallen tree towards us. We fought the orcs although Rodan and Cornichon were knocked out pretty quickly. Lilac, Monte, and I were able to attack the orcs and eventually take them out, although Monte was knocked out in the process. When Lilac and I took out the last orc, the three orc bodies suddenly disappeared and our companions stopped bleeding and woke up, perfectly fine and uninjured. There were not even any tracks or signs that the orcs had been there. This suspicious turn of events made us spend some time checking out the area a bit, although it was getting dark quickly. Monte smelled pipe smoke coming towards us on the wind, so he and Lilac headed off in that direction but were unable to find anything or anyone. Cornichon detected magic in the area and noticed Rodan’s shield spell. He apparently noted something else but was unable to identify exactly where or what it was.
[The orcs came charging down the trail from behind the characters…they came from where the characters had just walked. Someone will need to remind me to explain this later since I can’t now without giving away a spoiler to my players.]
As it was nearly dark, we only went about 20 minutes further before Monte found a good place for us to camp, surrounded by hedges on three sides. We set up four tents—Monte insisted he would share Cornichon’s tent since Cornichon is so small—and Monte started a fire pretty quickly after Lilac’s attempts fell short. Several of us heard howling in the distance—it came closer and we heard an answering howl from another direction. Both come closer but then we didn’t hear anything else for about 20 minutes, so the others went into their tents to sleep while I took first watch.
Not long after the others have gone into their tents, I was startled by a wolf biting me. It had stolen quietly around the back of one of the tents without my noticing it. I yelled “Wake up! Wolves!” to the others, and Monte, Rodan, and Lilac emerged from their tents. Cornichon remained in his tent but encouraged us all to fight the three wolves. We were able to take care of the wolves but Monte and I were injured. Thankfully, Rodan was able to heal both of us. The rest of the night passed uneventfully, and the next morning Monte prepared a breakfast of wolf, although the three were pretty scrawny and must have been desperate to come to our camp.
[Really? There is the approaching howling of at least two animals, predators, and just because they stop, the party feels safe enough to bed down and sleep. I foresee a TPK in the future. 😉 ]
We head off and come to a place where the trees are thinning out and we can see the Serpent Lake ahead about 100 feet, with thick fog over the center of the lake. We see a dark body lying motionless on the shore of the lake closest to us. Rodan slowly approached the body to see if it was someone in need of help, but quickly sees that the body is dead with some decay and bloating. Lilac moved up to the body and tried to pull the body away from the lake, but the arms pulled off easily. She was somewhat sickened when she turned the body over and saw the decay and bite marks on the face and body. It looks like the person wore fine traveling clothes, although they are very tattered and decayed now. There is a scabbard on the person’s belt, but there was no short sword in it.
[Alas, the party missed their first chance to get some treasure. It is partially my fault. In our last campaign, the fear of water was put into the players and, combined with stories of a massive serpent lairing in the lake, the players were very cautious of the water. So cautious, in fact, that they missed looking around the area to find a pouch and a masterwork shortsword. Oh well, nothing too valuable or important.
The body wasn’t actually bloated. It only looked like it from afar due to being face-down and having a backpack on under the cloak.]
We continued on, going past the lake while Cornichon tells us some of the stories he has heard about the serpent who is rumored to live in the lake. That night, Monte found another place for us to camp, which was less eventful than the previous night.
The next morning, we headed out and made it to the cliffs and gorge where we will find Kassen’s crypt. We set up the grappling hook and rope, and I made it down the rope without a problem. Cornichon made it down pretty easily too, before Rodan lowered his armor down on the rope. I cut his armor off the rope so that Rodan could climb down, but Rodan appears to be having some trouble with the climb. . .
[We ended the session as Rodan slipped and lost his grip on the rope during his descent. I gave RJ the option of making a roll to see what happened before we quit or wait until the next session. He rolled. I didn’t, however, tell him that I would tell him the result of the roll before next session. That’s where we left it…with Rodan in mid-fall!]
