Here is the writeup (from Todd) of our second session in our Pathfinder Beginner Box Hack mini-campaign. Spoiler Alert: There are spoilers for the adventure Fangs from the Past published by 0one Games. As is our typical pattern, the module is not getting run quite as written but there are still big spoilers for it below the break. My GM comments, as always, are in [italics and brackets] as usual.
[When we last left the party, they had recently arrived in the frontier village of Willoweed after having discovered the body of one of the local loggers about an hour out of the village. They learned from some other loggers that other attacks had happened over the last few weeks. When we ended, Aurora had just spotted her mother in the growing crowd of locals descending upon the village center. She was in tears and someone whispered to Aurora that her father had been the first victim killed two weeks earlier…]
Aurora and her mother are crying. Father Edor comes through the crowd to greet them and offer his condolences. He says he will check back in with them, but right now, he needs to go comfort Nisa. [Nisa was the betrothed to Hamil, the deceased logger that the party had just brought back to the village.]
Sergeant Lucent and Mayor Ros address the town. They say that they are looking into the attacks and that nobody should leave the village on their own. The people of the village are very upset that people are still being killed.
Aurora takes her mother home. Mayor Ros and Sergeant Lucent go to a building, the crowd following them. Theoden keeps going on about getting a drink while waiting for the crowd to disperse, before we try to talk to Sergeant Lucent. Remel and I are reluctant at first, but we eventually give in.
We go to the tavern. It is empty, no one is there. Theoden helps himself to our ales. He leaves money on the bar, but only after I suggest it. I sit with Remel at a table, while Theoden stands in the doorway, drinking his ale and watching the crowd milling around the mayor’s office. Theoden sees Sergeant Lucent come out of the office. It is obvious that Sergeant Lucent is looking for someone, and doesn’t find who he looking for, and goes back inside. Theoden does not say anything about this, so we stay in the tavern drinking our ales.
[Yep, Lucent had wanted to talk the party a bit more but he had to take the mayor back to his office before the crowd grew more anger and possibly dangerous. Once he got the mayor safely situated, he had come out to look for Aurora and the others but, of course, did not spot them since they weren’t there anymore.]
After waiting for a little while, a dwarf approaches the tavern and asks Theoden what he is doing. Theoden replies that he is drinking ale. The dwarf comes inside, and asks who poured the ales. He is clearly upset. Theoden admits to pouring the ales. The dwarf informs us that he is the owner, and NOBODY is allowed to touch his taps. He accuses us of stealing, but I tell him that we did leave money for the ales. He grabs a rag and goes behind the bar and begins cleaning the taps.
The crowd at the mayor’s office starts to disperse. Since we are not in the innkeep’s good graces, we leave to go talk to Sergeant Lucent. Theoden can’t leave bad enough alone, and makes a comment to the other dwarf about him being above ground too long. The dwarf says something back to Theoden, but I’m focused on going to see Sergeant Lucent.
At the mayor’s office, we try to talk to Sergeant Lucent, but he wants Aurora present. [So he doesn’t have to have the same conversation twice…he’s a busy man.]He has a guard take us to find Aurora. We find her at home, with her mother and some other women from the village. We all go back to the mayor’s office, but not before Aurora’s mother makes her promise to not do anything dangerous and to come back home. On our way to the mayor’s, we see a group of loggers watching us. The man that I had hit for insulting Aurora, is among them. He gives me the evil eye.
We explain our rescuing Remel, and how we found Hamel. Aurora brings up the legend of the Sage and the Sturgimates. Both, Lucent and Ros, do not believe it is the Sturgimates returned. Ros says something about it being the goblins making it look like Sturgimates, or someone using the goblins to scare the loggers. There is some discussion about who will benefit from the attacks. I’m putting my money on the mayor. Even with the attacks, he says the town is growing. Lucent wants more guards to send out with the loggers. He thinks the mayor should offer more money to attract more guards. Ros says he is paying plenty, at a copper a day, plus room and board. In the end, it is decided that we will go with Sgt. Lucent and examine the areas where the attacks occurred. He pointedly tells me to not cause any trouble.
We go to the tavern to get something to eat. The place is pretty well filled up with people. The mood of the room is dark, and no one seems to be talking. We are able to find a table, and gesture for the serving girl. She says Durn, the owner, is trying to cheer everybody up by offering the first ale at no charge. We order four ales and plates of food. She returns with three ales and three bowls of stew. She frowns at Theoden, saying that he is not going to be served any food or drink. She also says that we are not allowed to share our meals with him, or we will be refused service as well.
About the time we finish our meal; Durn comes over and sits down on the table, right in front of Theoden, with his back to Theoden. It seems that Durn has a different opinion as to the cause of the attacks. He goes on to tell us a story about a necromancer named Zachariah that lived in the area. [Zachariah was a young man from Willoweed many years ago who left to study the arcane arts. When he came back, he decided to take Willoweed for his own, hired some Gnoll mercenaries, and attacked. Zachariah and his allies were defeated and he fled, after having been shot by Sergeant Lucent. This all happened about fifteen years ago and Durn is convinced the the necromancer has returned to exact his vengeance. A few minutes later, Kilt (see below) pretty much dismissed Durn’s theories stating that Zachariah was a coward and would never return after having been beaten so soundly. The party also learned that Zachariah had hidden out in a cave outside of the old ruined village, about a day’s travel from Willoweed.]
An older man comes over and introduces himself as Kilt. Kilt blows off Durn’s story. Durn leaves and goes back behind the bar. Kilt says he can tell Aurora a real story for ale. Meanwhile, Remel and I have our own thoughts on what is happening. I am convinced that Mayor Ros is involved since he has the most to benefit from the town growing and prospering. I think he is in cahoots with one of the logging companies. Remel rejects my theory of the mayor being involved. About this time, Kilt interjects, and I realize that I have gotten a bit loud in the quiet tavern. [Actually, Aaron and Remel were the ONLY two people in the tavern talking at all.] Everyone is looking at me.
Kilt is intrigued with the direction that my story is going. He tells me to go on, and tells everyone to gather around. Suddenly I have a lot more attention to myself than I am comfortable with, but Kilt pushes me on. He asks me questions about my idea of the mayor being involved. Ros is playing down the Sturgimates, and thinking it could be a bunch of crazy goblins. It is more likely that he has someone leading the goblins to make it look like the Sturgimates, but blames the goblins to make it appear like he is not involved. Hence he offers money to attract more men to be guards, to make it seem like he is trying to help, But he knows he is not offering enough money to really have men want the job. Kilt throws out that maybe I’m involved, but am blaming the mayor, so I don’t look like a suspect. At this point, the man punched in the face for insulting Aurora, voices his opinion, agreeing with Kilt that I am involved. Kilt asks the man his name, to which the man replies Nick. Then Kilt suggests another line of thought that Nick is involved, much to Nick’s surprise. Kilt suggests that Nick and I are in “cahoots”, but we are fighting each other to appear as enemies, while I throw suspicion on the mayor, because I am the one leading the goblins to make it look like the Sturgimates are responsible, oh and the necromancer is involved in the story somewhere as well. I tell Kilt that that whole story is just crazy and inconceivable, at which point he leans back in his chair, and with a smirk, says “exactly.” I catch his point, and order ales for everyone.
During my lesson to keep my thoughts to myself, someone was sent to get Sgt. Lucent. But before, Lucent can get there, Kilt says he owes Aurora a real story, and tells us about the Sturgimates and the ruined village nearby. He tells us of the statue [of a Sturgimate] that was struck down by the Sage, and the words that the Sage carved into the base of the statue, “May this evil idol lie forever in the dirt and may sunlight overcome hard words.” Lucent arrives and gives me a hard look, asking if I know what “not causing trouble means”. He knows about my altercation with Nick, so he leaves two guards at the tavern while he escorts Aurora to her home. When he gets back, he suggests that I stay in the jail for my own protection. I tell him I don’t need protection, but he insists, threatening me with arrest on a number of charges [e.g., conspiring against the mayor, assaulting a logger, stealing ales…all of which are largely true.]. I go with him, as does Theoden (since he is not welcome at the inn), Remel comes along as well, (since the last time he was by himself, he was strung up by his feet and beaten by crazy goblins). [Todd forgot to mention that Theoden was quite clear that he felt it best that the cell doors should remain opened and unlocked since none of them were actually being arrested. Apparently, Lucent disagreed as he closed and locked the cell doors behind them…for their own protection, of course.]
In the morning, Lucent refuses to let us out before Aurora arrives. So we sit, waiting. Meanwhile, Father Edor arrives at Aurora’s home, to have her come join in the prayers to Saranrae. Her mother does not want her to leave. Aurora says she must go, and then her mother tries to get her to promise to stay out of danger and come back home. Aurora says she will do her best, but she has to stop what is happening so that no one else is hurt or killed the way her father was. Her mother starts crying, and Aurora leaves with Father Edor. After prayers, Aurora makes her way to the jail.
Lucent tells her he is ready to go see the attack sites and walks out the door, leaving Remel, Theoden and I locked up in our cells. Aurora tells him to lets us out. He does, but under protest. [Actually, Lucent left and got Aurora to follow him outside…after her protesting that he was leaving the other three behind. When Aurora got outside, Lucent was laughing quite heartily and came back in, with a smirk on his face, to let everyone out.] We go to the place where Hamel was found first, then to the site of the second attack, and finally to the place where Aurora’s father was attacked and killed. The only new information we find is that all three sites happen in a clearing surrounded by trees. We speculate this might be because Sturgimates can fly and need a large enough area to land in.
With not much to go on, we decide to continue on to the ruined village. [I believe that there was also mention that the Sturgimates were believed to have had a lair in the mountains a couple days east of Willoweed…past the old quarry and that the Sage was also rumored to have lived in that same area.] To avoid being seen my Aurora’s mother, Lucent goes back to Willoweed to get us a few supplies. He returns with the supplies and a hastily drawn map of the area. Lucent goes back to Willoweed, and we head out to the ruined village.
Since most of the day is gone already, we make camp for the night. It passes uneventfully. In the morning, we continue our hike to the ruined village. We come upon the village about midday. We can see a fire pit with something lying on the ground nearby. Cautiously, we enter the village ruins to investigate and try to locate the statue. As we near the center of the village, the fire pit is actually the remains of a bonfire, and the thing lying on the ground is half of a deer carcass. On the other side of the fire pit, is pile of carved and broken stone, most likely the statue we are looking for. As we move to get closer, I see a pole with a skull. Poles with skulls usually mean some kind of warning, so we go there first.
As we approach the pole and skull, a hyena leaps out from behind some rubble and charges Remel. I try to attack it, as it passes me, but I miss. It attacks Remel. While our attention is focused on the hyena, a pair of gnolls attacks us with javelins, from behind another pile of rubble. We are able to kill the gnolls and the hyena, though we do take some wounds. Aurora calls upon Saranrae and heals the wounds.
The skull on the pole is a gnoll’s. We figure a warning to the other gnolls. The deer carcass is half cooked and is crawling with maggots. At the base of the statue, we find the words, “May this evil idol lie forever in the dirt and may sunlight overcome hard words.” The broken pieces indicate that a Sturgimate is the size of a horse, with the body of a lion. It has a misshapen human head and dragon-like wings. We also find what appears to be the stud riddled head of a mace.
After a search of the ruined village turns up nothing useful, it is decided that we will go to the yellow cave. [Lucent had marked the spot that Zachariah had hidden out as the Yellow Cave at the edge of a swamp.] According to the map Lucent drew for us, the trail to the cave is on the north side of the village. It looked like it had been used recently. The trail is overgrown, but easy to follow, which is a good thing because I lose the tracks. We get to the cave before dark, but we decide to camp before going in. We backtrack up the trail a little ways and setup camp in the woods. The night passes uneventfully. [Or, at least, that’s what the players think. There were some pretty poor Perception checks during watches so maybe something did happen or pass by or whatever and the players just don’t know about it…yet. Just sayin’.]
In the morning, we go back to the cave. The cave is situated in front of a large swamp. [The cave is part of a large limestone formation sticking up out of the swamp’s edge.] The area in front of the cave is such to allow some of the swamp to drain into the cave mouth. Using a spear taken from the gnolls, I probe the ground in front of me, as we go into the cave. Remel casts a light spell on the spear so Aurora and I will be able to see. We follow a passage a little ways, before it opens into a circular chamber. The water in the cave is knee deep, so I continue to probe the floor at the edge of the wall. I am about a quarter of the way around the room, when I realize that there is something at the back of the room. It doesnt seem to be moving, so I creep closer.
I see that it is a skeleton. I let the others know that am a bit concerned that it will come to unlife if I get too close. I notice something shiny, just before something strikes the skeleton. I jump in surprise, as the skeleton falls over. Theoden says he took care of it, as he reloads his sling. [Also grumbling about humans being overly cautious.]
[That’s pretty much where we ended. Aaron was at the far end of the cave, standing next to where the skeleton had been. Aurora and Theoden were in the tunnel at the mouth of the larger cavern while Remel was a few steps behind them in the short tunnel. I asked Austin for a d20 roll. He got an 18 and asked what it was for…I told him he’d find out next session.]
