Pathfinder - Fimbulvinter

[Mouse]

After deciding to free Bob from his predicament the party sought to work as his defence in the upcoming trial. After interviewing several witnesses they realised there were inconsistencies. Guards had seen Bob leave the town before the murder took place and come back much later.

They knew they were closing in on the trail as a man offered them large sums of gold to stop the investigation. As they chased the man into an alleyway he cut his own throat but was saved by Cheech who stabilized his condition. He was brought to the jail where he was to be interrogated.

Leaving the jail they spotted a man dragging a corpse over the ground they tried to intercept him but before they could catch him he cut the head off the corpse to prevent identifying it and ran away. The next morning Grok spotted the prosecutor interrogating the man who bribed them. Grok saw how the prisoner after being touched by the prosecutor fell to the floor and died. Suspecting poison the party found a herbalist but in investigating the body she found nothing.

As the trial came closer the party came into contact with a Drow they had previously met when enslaved under the Wood Siren. She could solidify their defense by telling the feudal lord that they were fighting her when the murder was supposed to have taken place. However after being offered gold and protection on her journey she decided to get Bob off the hook in another way.

AS the trial started Sheldon had an epic showdown with the prosecutor and Grok planned on how to get Bob off if the trial did not go their way by strategically placing a weapon under the trapdoor by the hanging so that Bob could defend himself.

Sheldon had recently enslaved a young boy who had agreed to watch the house of the late clothier. As the trial went on he snuck in...

The trial ended and with some sneaky help from the drow's spells the feudal lord decided to free Bob. As Sheldon stepped down the boy came running to him telling him he had found a strange doll in the closet of the house. Cheech, Brynhildr, Sheldon and the Inquisitor rushed to the house and found that it was the body of the widow who they thought were alive. As they investigated the body the widow and the prosecutor entered the house seeing that they had been found out. They offered the party gold and as the party refused they attacked by growing claws out of their hands. The adventurers killed them and displayed the bodies to prove Bob's innocence beyond a doubt.

Currently the party is planning to travel on with the drow and carry out their promised task...

[Mouse]

Realizing that the Drow's route were not much different from the one they were planning on taking the party were satisfied with accompanying her as she could guide them through the forest. The were not completely sure that it was a good idea to leave the road but decided it was for the best in the end.

During the journey Sheldon decided to train his new slave. The boy was crying and whimpering but Grok found that he could scare him into silence if he tried hard enough. The boy started to cover his mouth to avoid any sound from escaping.

After a while they discovered a small clearing where some wood seemed to be missing for some reason. The ground was covered in a silky substance which Cheech got stuck in multiple times. While deciding what to do the party was ambushed by batlike creatures. A fight which originally seemed to be tricky ended quickly as Grok swiftly crushed two of them with his Greataxe and the party cooperated to kill the last one. With this threat avoided the party decided that the clearing was now safe. This turned out to be a mistake as an enormous spider landed on Grok pinning him to the ground.

The large half-orc being pinned to the ground proved to be a serious setback but the party managed to keep Grok alive as they fought the spider. After several misses in the aftermath of the surprise attack Brynhildr finally delivered some fatal blows and the heroes brought it to the ground and Grok could be freed from its grip.

Following the lead of the Drow Grok found that the cocoons in the trees contained items of great interest, beyond the large amount of treasure they had found in the caravan ambushed by the spider. A hat with magical attributes were acquired which seemed to be able to disguise its wearer into any other humanoid creature. The Drow who seemed to be eager to recover such items tried to buy it but Grok did not trust her.

As the Party set up camp Cheech were once again ambushed by a shadow conjured from the pendant around his neck. It was easily defeated but it woke the Drow's interest and she offered to take the pendant off them for a large sum of gold. The mistrust of the woman led the cleric to decline this offer. The drow turned out to not take no for an answer and proceeded to try to steal the pendant but was spotted by Brynhildr. Their success was limited however as the Drow had no intent to be captured and escaped by using a darkness spell to confuse the group.

The inquisitor proved resourceful and found them a way through the woods having lost their guide. As they travelled they found a more recent kill of the spider. The inquisitor and Sheldon sensed their God Hel's work all over it and found that it was a message written in blood for them. She wished of her subjects to smash a mirror found nearby in return for a reward. They both found that the rest of te group was hesitant of helping a God that was of evil nature but Sheldon gave promises of riches and treasure and the party seemed more accepting of the idea.

As they reached a village of warriors worshipping the Martyr God Balder Sheldon started asking around for a place where a mirror could have been hidden ages back. Piecing information together Sheldon revealed that a wizard had passed the village many years ago asking to hide an artifact of some power. The warriors had declined but the wizard had left for the forest to build his own hiding place for this artifact. Sheldon thought he had enough information to find the hideaway.

The group set out to find it and managed to by a coincidence as Sheldon found a rock which seemed out of place in the terrain. The two worshipper's of Hel and Grok failed to see the entrance which was laid clear only to the other adventurers. Bob decided to stay outside to guard their newly purchased horses while the other stepped inside the cave, including the slave boy who gathered his courage. As they stepped inside The inquisitor triggered a trap which conjured a flaming sphere behind them. The party ran forwards to dodge it only to be separated from eachother by a block falling from the roof. Sheldon tried to shield his slave from the sphere but they were both engulfed in flames and the boy died.

Having been separated Sheldon saw no way to find away through the tunnel to his companions and they proceeded forward on their own. They found an old room with a large mirror in it. As they approached it an old ghost appeared telling them to step away from the mirror. The ghost was revealed to be the old wizard they had spoken about in the village. He told them that the mirror had been created to seal away an evil spirit and it must not be destroyed for what it would do to the village if it was released.

Ignoring the warning the inquisitor smashed the mirror despite Brynhildr trying to stop him. Cheech, trying to protect his friend fought the ghost as Brynhildr fought the inquisitor for releasing the spirit. Grok, who had been trapped behind an illusionary stone wall joined the others, extremely confused as to what was going on he grabbed Brynhildr to prevent her from killing the inquisitor. After dragging her into the room with the mirror they all came together to battle the ghost who was now on the brink of killing Cheech and managed to defeat it.

Seeds of mistrust has, however, been sown in the party and one can only hope to guess what will happen next...

[Mouse]

Since this was the last session for this year I would be grateful if the players would leave their feedback on what they think of the game so far. Tom and I would be happy to hear any ideas on improvements or changes, we aim to please.

Go ahead, if you want to call me a tard who writes these summaries who no one reads anyway this is your chance. Take no prisoners!

[Deth Monkee]

The inquisitor isn't that bad a guy, he's just been brainwashed to believe that he owes Hel his service for saving his life, and will actively go out of his way to aid Hel.
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I'm really liking the campaign now we're better equipped to solve problems without violence, whereas before it was a bit dull. I think the story itself is excellent, and I can't wait to see how my latest action affects the world.

[Mouse]

Letting lose an ancient trapped evil that the Lady of Undeath likes? The results can only be beautiful... OR horrifying depending on how you like to view things, but who cares now that you've got a magical mirror shard to play with?

Yeah, the prologue lingered on for about double as long as we expected, it was originally just there in order to make us know your characters and for you to get to know the world better.

[Dudeicuf]

I'm absolutely loving it. I love playing Grok especially now hes been able to unleash his inner evil. I also really like the group dynamics we have going at the moment, it provides many laughs and we can kill things. As Owen said, the story is excellent and I'm really looking forward to epic events opening up more and more. I've also really enjoyed reading your summaries of the story and reminiscing.

My only idea about changes or improvements would be to do with crits. For both me and Bob, our weapons normally would do x3 damage on a crit in exchange for only having a threat range of 20. Just using the crit deck means that there no point to the great axe or warhammer and really we should both be using greatswords for the extended crit range. My idea of an improvement was that when we pull a card out of the crit deck and it says 'double damage' plus something else, we read that as, 'normal crit multiplier' plus whatever. Something along those lines anyway to make it worth having the greataxe or warhammer.

[Mouse]

You are in the right that it is a bit unjust to weapons with a lower crit range. I will take it up with my colleague at a suitable time and we'll see what we can do. I'm glad you like the story, provided you survive you will see many more interesting events unravel...

[holloway]

To nathan - we've come up with an idea for the crit issue we'd figure we'd pass by you (and everyone else for that matter). We've made a compromise between keeping the more interesting crit deck but also granting those with higher crit multipliers (and lower crit ranges) the bonus they deserve.

Anywho, the idea was that those with a x3 multiplier would add 50% onto any effect given by the crit card. That means double damage effectively becomes triple your initial base damage and bleeds/ability damage is also increased slightly. In the rare case of a player having a x4 weapon, this would be a 100% increase instead.

What do you think? Any criticism is welcome.

[Dudeicuf]

That seems perfect. I think it just makes a bit more sense having weapons with higher crit multipliers get to use that in some way even with the crit deck and you guys have come up with a cool way. Damn you guys are awesome DMs

[Deth Monkee]

Sounds good to me.

[holloway]

Glad you like the sound of it. Bear in mind however, that this works both ways. Enemies with higher crit multipliers will also hit like a speeding train and that will sting.

Don't be suprised if we send an army of soldiers wielding scythes at you.

[Dudeicuf]

lol. Fair is fair

[Deth Monkee]

When are we starting up again?

[Mouse]

Not decided yet. Since I am in the land of polar bears, ice hockey and too much snow (seriously roofs are caving in!) I have not been able to talk to Tom for a while. I will try to get a hold of him and discuss it, though. I am fairly certain he is not in Bristol yet...

In the meantime I know that my plane will not leave until after the 13th of January a day generally known as "Tjugonda Knut" in Sweden (making the next Monday the 17th provided we keep running it on the same weekday). That is a week-long extra wait but it shouldn't be impossible to run it without me on the tenth seeing as I've sent most of the necessary paperwork to Tom via E-mail already and I could be present in digital form at next Monday I suppose.

[Dudeicuf]

I wont be about on the 10th but the 17th is good for me