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--- game_systems:pathfinder:runlords:adventure_journal [2024/04/11 10:29] – [Recovery and Return] Bryan Stephens
+++ game_systems:pathfinder:runlords:adventure_journal [2024/05/25 11:15] (current) – [Catacombs of Wrath] Bryan Stephens
@@ Line 119: / Line 119: @@
 === Recovery and Return ===
 |Game Date|02/17/2024|
-|Campaign Dates | Rova 24, 4707|
+|Campaign Dates | Rova 24-25, 4707|
@@ Line 160: / Line 160: @@
 |Game Date|03/09/2024|
-|Campaign Dates | Rova XX-XX 4707|
+|Campaign Dates | Rova 26-28 4707|
 ==== Hunt and Ledger ====
@@ Line 167: / Line 167: @@
 Back in town, Al touches base with his contact and is offered a mission to retrieve a ledger book from a visiting merchant at the White Deer. Al accepts the job and begins to plan. He is back at the Rusty Dragon when the others return. There is a big party with the large bore returned. Foxglove, dejected by his rejection, retires early.
+{{:game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:shayless_vindar.jpg?300 |}}
 During the festivities, Shayliss Vinder, the daughter of the Sandpoint General Store, makes a clear play for Grymar which utterly fails. The bookish sorcerer with the exotic features becomes even more appealing to the young woman, even though he is missing it entirely. Al offers to escort the young lady home and gets her their safely, all the while getting to know her better. The young lady feels outshown by her older sister //”who gets to have all the fun”//. Al, ever attentive to the local gossip knows that rumor holds that Katrine Vinder's been "shacking up" with one of the workers at the lumber mill, and her overly protective father's been up in arms about it When they do arrive at the General Store, the Tengu talks well and makes a good impression of her grateful father. He then heads off on his mission to steal the ledger of one Caanan Tegah.
@@ Line 183: / Line 185: @@
 Al is headed to the Rusty Dragon when he hears someone behind him running. He is relieved to see it is an Acolyte of Desna. The young man is clearly not in the best of physical fitness, and is huffing with the effort. Between breaths he informs Al he is looking for the group and Father Zantus needs their help with the disturbed tomb. Al follows him to the cathedral.
+{{ :game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:sa047_skeleton_warrior.jpg?250|}}
 Once they are all there, Sherrif Hemlock and Father Zantus tells the group that stone door to the previous priest's burial vault is hanging. Fearing the worst, Zantus quickly sought out Sheriff Hemlock and the local heroes. Hemlock tells Zantus to stay here and invites the party to come with him to the tomb in the Boneyard.
@@ Line 204: / Line 208: @@
+===== 03 Glass and Wrath =====
+|Game Date|04/24/2024|
+|Campaign Dates | Rova 27-30, Lamashan 1 4707|
+==== Invitations ====
+=== The Shopkeeper’s Daughter===
+Shayliss has not lost her will to find some companionship of her own. She leads Grymar through the streets back the General Store with Al following discreetly behind. They enter the private door and head for the basement. Shayliss reveals her true intentions as soon as she they are alone in the basement; her bodice comes off and she slides herself into an embrace with Grymar, guiding him to a convenient cot she has set up in the back of the room.
+While Grymar is having his first serious encounter with a woman, her father, Ven Vinder returns from picking up supplies. Al sees this and leaps into action, approaching the shopkeeper and offering to help him get things into the store. Vinder remembers Al from the other night and welcomes him in. Al desperately casts about to see where his friend has gone but sees nothing. He loudly asks Vinder about anything he might purchase for their newly renovated Guardhouse. It is this noise that alerts the now pantsless Grymar something is up. He and Shayliss quickly dresses and Al sees Grymar sneaking out the back door. Relaxed, Al is genuinely interested in the furniture that Vinder has for sale, especially a sophisticated desk.
+=== Lunch with Scarnetti ===
+The Scarnettis are Sandpoint's most notorious noble family, and many of Sandpoint's elderly Varisian locals still haven't forgotten or forgiven [[game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:Founding_of_Sandpoint|Alamon Scarnetti's assault]] on their people more than 40 years ago, even with Alamon 20 years in the ground at the Sandpoint Cemetery. The Scarnetti family, now headed by Alamon's only surviving son, Titus Scarnetti, controls Sandpoint's mills and the lumber industry. Their control over the lumber the Valdemars need for their enterprises is not lost on the Scarnettis, and they use this fact as often as possible to leverage Valdemar support. The Scarnettis are easily Sandpoint's most traditional family, who cling to old Chelish values that are, in many cases, outdated today
+{{ :game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:scarnetti.jpg?250|}}
+With this in mind, it is somewhat of a surprise when a well dressed messenger approaches the Guard House and inquires of the ladies if they and the other “Heroes of Sandpoint” would attend lunch with Titus Scarnetti. The ladies accept and wait an hour. Just as they are leaving, the men show up, Al having caught up to the would be paramour, giving him brotherly ribbing about the episode. The two are interested in attending and they four take the long hike out of the city to the Scarnetti Manor house.
+Over Lunch, he congratulates them on their heroics and talks at length about the past history of his family, excluding the details on his late father’s sorry history. He does discuss
+[[game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:Unpleasantness|the “Late Unpleasantness”]] as it is called. He offers the group lumber as a reward for saving Sandpoint. It is pretty clear to Al and the ladies that Scarnetti is looking to buy influence with them in the future. However, the heroes are happy to take the gifts since no formal strings are attached, and the scheming noble can find out how much his bribes are actually worth in the future.
+They end lunch and proceed back into the city, hoping to conduct some shopping. However, they encounter Sheriff Hemlock who asks them to come to see him at the Mayor’s Manor to visit with Shalelu Andosana, a ranger in these parts. The group turns around and goes back through the city and back out to the noble homes, this time to Mayor Deverin’s home.
+==== Grim News from Mosswood ====
+Shalelu Andosana isn't quite a bounty hunter, a survivalist, or a mercenary, but rather a mix of all three. The half-elven woman passes through town once or twice a season to buy supplies and never remains more than a few days, always staying in the same room at the Rusty Dragon free of charge thanks to her long friendship with Ameiko. Near the end of each visit, she meets with Sheriff Hemlock and Mayor Deverin for a few hours at the garrison to give a report on the state of the hinterlands before she leaves town again, a pouch of gold at her side. Both Hemlock and Deverin value Shalelu's reports, since they provide unbiased insight into how the local farmlands are faring and keep the town council abreast ofburgeoning dangers in the region.
+Shalelu’s current visit to Sandpoint is unexpected-she last passed through town only a month ago and wasn't expected until the last week of autumn. She dispenses with her visit to the Sandpoint Market and the Rusty Dragon, instead requesting an immediate meeting with Sheriff Hemlock and Mayor Deverin. The unusual meeting and Shalelu's ragged look combine to make an already jumpy populace suspect that the woman brings news of a new goblin threat. This is why the Sherriff seeks out the Heroes of Sandpoint.
+Hemlock then introduces Shalelu to the group as an //"unofficial member of Sandpoint's town guard"// (an introduction that causes her to smirk) and the young heroes to Shalelu as //"Sandpoint's newest crop of goblinslayers.”//
+Hemlock explains that Shalelu has been a thorn in the side of the local goblin tribes for years, and that few in the region know more about them than she does. He goes on to recap her report that Sandpoint hasn't been the only place in the region that's had goblin troubles. In short, there's been an increase in goblin-related raids along the Lost Coast, particularly in the dale between Nettlewood and Mosswood. Only a day ago, a farm south of Mosswood was burnt to the ground by a group of goblins. Shalelu was thankfully nearby, and while the farm couldn't be saved, she did rescue the family and drive off the goblins; the family is staying at a nearby farm for now, but the goblin problem is obviously not going away.
+{{ :game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:shalelu.jpg?400|}}
+At this point, Hemlock cedes the floor to Shalelu, asking her to tell the group what she told him:
+//"Belor's told me of your work against the goblin swell done. I 've dedicated the last several years of my life to keeping them from causing too much trouble around these parts, but they're tenacious and fecund little runts. Like weeds. Weeds that that bite.//
+//"There are five major goblin tribes in the region , and, traditionally, they're pretty good at keeping each other in line with intertribal squabbles and the like . Yet from what I 've been able to piece together, members of all five tribes were involved in the raid on Sandpoin t. A fair number of the Mosswood goblin s I dealt with yesterday were already pretty beat up, and there was a lot of chatter about the 'longshanks' who killed so many of them. Now that I 've met you, it seems obvious from their description s who they were talking about. Seems like you've made an impression.//
+//"In any event, the fact that the five tribes are working together disturbs me. Goblin tribes don't get along unless they've got something big planned, and big plans require big bosses. I 'm afraid that someone's moved in on the goblins and organized them. And judging by these recent raids, what they're organizing seems like bad news for all of us."//
+After Shalelu's speech, Sheriff Hemlock announces that he's taking a few of his guards south to Magnimar to see about securing additional soldiers to station at Sandpoint for a few weeks, at least until the extent of the goblin threat can be determined. While he's out of town, he's asked Shalelu to sniff around Shank's Wood, Brinestump, Mosswood, Devil's Platter, and other places where goblins live to see if she can discover anything else about what's going on. He also asks the new heroes to maintain a public presence in Sandpoint over the next few days, if they don't mind. //"The locals seem to have taken to you,"// he says, //"And seeing you around town will do a lot for keeping worries down over the next few days."//
+The grope of course agrees. The meetings and conversations have taken them from the afternoon until the evening. Shaelu notes she is staying at the Rust Dragon and offers them dinner on her in exchange for hearing more about their times in the Sandpoint raid.
+That evening, over drinks and dinner at the Rusty Dragon, the five exchange stories and tales. Importantly, [[game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:Shalelu_Tales|Shalelu's tells the group about the local Goblin Tribes]].
+The next morning, the half elf ranger heads back into woods, and Sherrif Hemlock heads out with his men. The party decides to spend the day shopping, a good way to both be visible and to furnish their new home. The first head back to Vinder’s General Store and order some specific items. Next is the Carpenter’s guild where word has already reached them from Titus Scarnetti for a supply of good lumber for them to use. Next up is the local Locksmith. Finally, Azaela notes she just met with a noble and they keep rubbing elbows with others in power. She has them stop off the head of the local Clothing Guild for an order of nice clothes. They are putting a number of people to work!
+They retire to the Rusty Dragon for a good night’s sleep.
+==== Sandpoint Glassworks ====
+=== A Missing Inn Owner ===
+Al is awoken to a knock on his door and a timid voice calling to him. He gets up to meetthe elderly halfling woman, Bethana, a maid who works for Ameiko at the Rusty Dragon. She's obviously upset and asks to speak to Al. In short, her employer has gone missing. Bethana woke earlier this morning to find that Ameiko hadn't already started breakfast, for the first time Bethana could remember. Worried, she knocked on Ameiko's door but didn't get a response. Against herbetterjudgment, Bethana entered Ameiko's room to find it empty and the bed unslept in. Worse, she found a crumpled piece ofparchment near the bed-a note from Ameiko's older brother Tsuto.
+At this point, Bethana hands Al the note. Although it was written in Minkaian (likely to keep prying eyes from reading it, Bethana muses), Ameiko had been teaching Bethana the language over the last few years. The halfling has helpfully already translated the note's message on the opposite side.
+{{:game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:102284.jpg?150 |}}
+The note is from her brother, Tsuto, inviting her to meet him at the Glassworks saying their father might have something to do with the recent troubles in Sandpoint. Al knows this is strange, because in his talks with his new friend he learned about her half brother. Bethan does not know this and she explains to Al hat Tsuto was something of a scandal when he was born back in 4688 (a year before Ameiko), since he's a half-elf. Bethana sagely notes, with big eyes, that neither of Ameiko's parents are elves. It was obvious that old Lonjiku wasn't the boy's father, and his rage at the discovery of his wife's indiscretion was the talk of the town for months. Lonjiku's wife Atsuii never revealed who the father was, and it's a testament to Lonjiku's stubbornness that they remained married. Tsuto was handed over to the Turandarok Academy to be raised outside of the Kaijitsu family, ignored by his father and forbidden visits from his mother. Ameiko starting visiting him in secret once she learned about his existence at the age of 10, visiting him a few times a month to keep him company, bring him some food, and promise him that someday things would get all sorted out. That all changed in 4705, when they had a terrible argument in which Tsuto struck Ameiko. Bethana doesn't know what the argument was about, but whatever it was sent Ameiko away from Sandpoint for a year, during which time she made a living as an adventurer. She returned to Sandpoint a year later to attend her mother's funeral. Tsuto was quite public in his opinions that his father had pushed Atsuii off a cliff to her death, and during the funeral there was a confrontation. Lonjiku nearly broke Tsuto's jaw with his cane, after which Tsuto cursed him and left Sandpoint. Ameiko has tried to reestablish contact with him ever since, but was never able to track him down.
+Bethana's worried that Tsuto's up to no good. Since SheriffHemlock's out oftown,the PCs are the onlyones she can turn to. She begs them to head over to the Glassworks and find out what happened to Ameiko as soon as possible.
+Al rouses his friends and the head off immediately to the Glassworks.
+=== Investigating the Glassworks ===
+Once at the Glassworks, they find the building curiously silent. Neighbors have noticed the lack of traffic into and from the building, but since the furnace chimney still plumes with smoke, most assume that the building is simply closed to allow Lonjiku and his workers some privacy while they work on a big project. A quick investigation of the building perimeter reveals that curtains have been drawn over the windows and all the doors are locked. The rumble of the Glassworks' furnace is plainly audible from within.
+After knocking on two different doors, Al decides to pick a lock. The front entrance is too well designed for his skills. Trying the back entrance, Al finds the lock worn and easily defeated. Sneaking in, the sounds of the furnaces are loud, as the furnace room is behind two more doors. Those are unlocked, and silent as the night, he sneaks in and peeks around the wall. Eight or more goblins are inside the room.
+A furnace burns along the southeast wall of this room. Marble tables sit in the chamber, used to work raw glass into usable shapes, with nearby wooden tables cluttered with various tools of the trade. The building's furnace rumbles loudly, making hearing extremely difficult. The main furnace burns at the northeast end, a large chamber that utilizes alchemically treated wood that burns with a hot blue light. The workers use this room to melt glass, but Al knows that Lonjiku also periodically "rented" the furnace to Sczarni thugs for the disposal of evidence, as the fires are hot enough to burn bones and teeth. As the furnace's stone pipes run southwest, they reach smaller and progressively cooler furnaces used to keep glassworking projects at the proper temperature-glass shatters if it's allowed to cool too quickly.
+Horribly, inside the bodies of the eight staff lie in various stages of dismemberment; the goblins have been burning legs and arms in the furnace with glee, and pouring melted glass on the remains in an attempt to duplicate a “masterpiece” of Lonjiku Kaijitsu’s body, propped up in a chair in the central alcove and encased in thick, runny sheets of hardened glass.
+Horrified, Al pulls back to talk to his party!
+=== Glass and Goblins ===
+|Game Date|05/02/2024|
+{{ :game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:tsuto.jpg?300|}}
+The group decides a surprise attack is in order. Because of the loud noise of the furnaces, it is easy for them to fall upon the goblins. They march down the length of the room, leaving dead goblins in their wake. The goblins fight back with thrown hot glass and their dogslicers, but it is no good. One tries to flee down a flight of stairs but as the goblin has his hand on the doorknob, he glances back and Grymar sends a crossbow bolt though his eye.
+Six goblins lay dead in in the room. The group discusses next actions. They feel finding Ameiko is most vital, and decide to sneak down the stairs since that is where the goblin was fleeing. They slowly descend into the lower areas. At the bottom of the stairs, they find cleared rubble, like an area had once been bricked over. Investigation leads to another area that had been cleared in the same way. Al takes the other direction and stumbles into their real quarry, Tsuto Kaijitsu and to guardian goblins. Al takes the iniative and leaps past the goblins to go for the big game. El leads her pet around the other way to flank the group.
+Grymar falls back on his old favorite, //burning hands// and burns the goblins who swing wildly to defend themselves. Azaela simply strides past the goblins, taking their attacks as she closes on the kidnapper. With a mighty swing she almost cripples him. As Selene closes from the other side, Tsuto flips over the cat and stabs El. However, this fight is not going to go well for him. Azaela again suffers a stab form a goblin to get within reach of her foe and kills him while Selen takes out the last goblin. There is a quiet that falls in the room. They spread out to search downstairs, and fittingly, it is Al who finds Ameiko, conscious but badly wounded. They are able to get her stable, but want her safe. Grymar reports there is a tunnel heading out of the glassworks and is worried there are more goblins deeper. Al carries his friend out of the glassworks and flags down a citizen who is only too happy to take Ameiko to the Cathedral for care. Meanwhile, the other three investigate the rest of the Glassworks. While Tsuto is dead and can tell no tales, Tsuto's journal proves a better source of information. This small, leather-bound booklet contains two dozen parchment pages, most of which Tsuto has filled with maps of Sandpoint or erotic drawings of Nualia (who the party recognizes as the presumed-dead adopted daughter of Father Tobyn). The maps each depict different attack plans. The first set shows the attack plans for a group of 30 goblins-one of these battle maps is circled, and the heroes recognize it as the attack the goblins made on Sandpoint many days ago. Of more pressing concern are the next several pages, which illustrate an assault on Sandpoint by a force of what appears to be 200 goblins. None of these are circled, and while many are scratched out as if they've been rejected. The implications are ominous. Most of the drawings of Nualia depict as a normal human, though the last single demonic hand, but also bat wings, horns, a forked tail, and fang.
+{{:game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:journal.png?|}}
+==== Catacombs of Wrath ====
+{{:game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:sinspawn.png?400 |}}
+The group investigates what appears to be an old smuggler’s entrance between the two areas that were bricked up. The long tunnel leading from this room winds for some distance through the bedrock below Sandpoint. It must have been built decades ago by smugglers, the tunnel remains stable and serviceable as it winds lazily northeast for just over 1,750 feet before reaching a dead end. A DC zo Perception check reveals a secret door that opens into a 30-foot-diameter cave on the side of the cliff overlooking the Varisian Gulf. The cave mouth slopes down to a narrow beach; no Survival check is required to note the crude collection of goblin beds or remnants of their meals strewn about the cave.
+From the tunnel's southern half, two side tunnels branch off. One leads east to a collapse after 400 feet El estimates I may have once led all the way to the Turandarok River. The one to the west seems to have once been bricked over at the point where it diverges from the main tunnel. This westerly passageway winds for 50 feet before turning north for another 100 feet. This tunnel seems dug for an unknown purpose. Whatever was found three by the old smugglers convinced them to brick up the tunnel and never speak of it again. The brick wall appears to have been torn down recently.
+The party advances cautiously in their normal order. As they enter into this unknown complex. The immediately run into too a pair of sinspawn guarding the entrance. El and Selene rush to attack and both hit well. Al attempts another flipping attack but misses, as does Azaela. Grymar is behind the others and afraid to unleash an area of effect spell or fire into melee. The sinspawn sink into Azaela hurting her gravely, but El steps up to heal her. The summoned creatures then perish as Selene and Al finish them off.
+The group heads in deeper and Azaela leads the way. As if guided by something, she directs the group straight towards the heart of the complex to the Shrine to Lamashtu and the Cathedral of Wrath. This huge room looks like nothing more than an immense underground cathedral. Ston e doors stand to either side of the main entrance, but beyond this, the walls are carved with strange, spiky run es. I n the center of the room is a large pool, with a ring of polished human skulls balanced on stone spikes arranged in a circle around the deeper midsection . At the far end of the room, a pair of stone stairways leads up to a pulpit on which sits a second pool, this one triangular and filled with churning, bubbling water that looks almost like translucent lava . Yet while wisps of what look like heat and steam rise from the strange orange liquid, the room itself is deathly cold.
+{{ :game_systems:pathfinder:runelords:erylium.png?200|}}
+Inside they see a quasit, a tiny type of demon and another sinspawn. She flies into a rage, accusing the group of “daring to intrude upon Mother’s sanctum”. The group does not hesitate. Al and Azaela engage and destroy the sinspawn between them and their foes. Selene closes and misses the tiny creature, but Grymar relies on //magic missile// to always hit. This results in Grymar being caught in a //hold person// spell. Azaela steps up for a big attack and she is rewarded with being put to //sleep//. The quasit dodges El and Selene while Grymar against uses //magic missile// as he does not think he can hit her any other way. Al steals the greatsword from the slumbering Azaela and swings the mighty blade killing the quasit.
+The rest of the catacombs are easier to manage. They find ancient zombies in cages, easily delt with. They also find the goblin hero Koruvus, mutated by the unholy water in the shrine. While dangerous, he is not a match for the group. Grymar’s expertise in Runelord lore leads him to believe this fountain is a minor //runewell// and may be where the sinspawn are coming from. This will need to be delt with. However, a full accounting of these catacombs can wait. Right now Ameiko needs a friend.
+Al and Azaela go to the healing Ameiko to break the news to her of her brother’s and father’s deaths. As heir, she is now the newest noble in the city. She takes the news stoically, but they know she does not want to run a glassworks.
+The group knows that some additional clean up is needed. With the threat of over 200 goblins against the city from Tsuto’s journal, they have to act quickly. There are not dates and no warning when the attack might come. The next stop is going to be the goblin stronghold of Thistletop and perhaps the “longshanks” who has been rallying them, the apparently not deceased Nualia Tobyn.

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