Archer Arrowsmith - Human Scout (260 points)
Elana - Human Holy Warrior of Melora, goddess of the wilderness and sea (278 points)
"The" Lukas Zombanyi - Human Cleric of Bahamut, god of justice and protection (263 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (292 points)
Mahk Strawngmussle - Human Labourer (72 points)
Vaelcor Treehippie - Human Druid (280 points)
Jahn the Bear - Bear (209 points)
NPCs:
Odo - Human Wizard, definitely not a necromancer (??? points)
Thrunvir - Dwarf Initiate, Crippled (??? points)
Player Absent:
Masha Deathfoot - Human Martial Artist (265 points)
Amothius 40th 2546, Dirhin Mountains
Vaelcor, somewhat out of ideas, threw a 2d bolt of Lightning at one of the storm archon casters, and hit, but it was fully resisted. Jahn tried to jump on one of the floating motes of earth surrounding the peak but crit failed and clotheslined herself instead. The living storm elemental knocked Masha harmlessly off of her mote, and Archer crit an arrow at one of the archons, but their Homogenous nature meant it had little effect.
Seeing that they were losing, the archons both flew away, followed shortly by the elemental, which flew straight up. Archer fired off a parting shot but a failure on Fast-Draw meant she didn't get a second. The floating bits of stone fell down, and the storm quickly dissipated. The party scooped up some of the dead archons' dust (a valuable reagent) into empty bottles, and Lukas grabbed the leader's longsword, but they left the rest of the weapons and armour, as nobody had room.
Amothius 41st-42nd 2546, Swamp
Using Pathfinder to navigate, the party made decent time, but lamented their lack of gryphons. Over the day, the swamp air grew oppressively thick and warm, leaving everyone exhausted. While resting on some dry ground, they debated setting camp early; Lukas asked his god for guidance, and interpreted the silence to mean "Press on". Archer said "I'm staying here" and lay down before falling asleep, followed by Odo. None of them could be woken up, so magic was probably involved.
While debating leaving or trying Dispel Magic or something, a root grabbed Archer and started to drag her away. Lukas cut the offending root to pieces and started hauling her further into the swamp. Puddin' cut some more roots and vines dragging Odo, and, after Elana stepped in to carry him, they continued on their way. Several hours later, a fresh breeze eased their travel, and the sleepers woke up fully rested.
Amothius 43rd 2546, Swamp
In a hip-deep section of swamp water (neck-deep for Puddin'), some of the party heard the flapping of bat swarms, shortly before being ambushed by a pack of 12 stirges. Thanks to Vaelcor's Animal Empathy, they hesitated, losing surprise, but attacked anyway. The stirges flew in, but only a single one managed to hit, biting into Mahk's eye. Elana shishkebab'd a pair of stirges on her spear, while Lukas cast Armour 5 on himself, rendering himself entirely immune.
Odo cast Blackout and hid inside, and Archer, worried about friendly fire, drew her broadsword instead, while Puddin' stabbed one with her katar. One of the stirges latched onto Jahn's eye, while a pair tried to bite Lukas but bounced off of his force field. Mahk grappled the strix biting him, and Elana speared it and another. After repositioning to avoid a giant chain of friendly fire, Vaelcor tossed out a Lightning bolt, but missed.
Lukas grappled one of the stirges near him, and thrust it down under the water to drown it ("You know you could squish it to death, right?" "No, I'm drowning it."); another wasted its attack on his magically-protected eyes. Jahn swatted the one biting it in the face, and then missed a second and hit Lukas instead, wounding him, but not badly enough to make him stop baptising the stirge. The surviving stirges fled, and Elana convinced Lukas to let go of the "innocent beast" he was drowning. Reluctantly, he agreed, but it did not resurface.
Amothius 44th, Forest
The party made exceptional time through the light forest, stopping only at midday to investigate a long-ruined, burned-out village that they stumbled across. An earthen burial mound surrounded by standing stones filled the center of the village, and Lukas decided to investigate further after seeing a crude symbol of Bahamut on one of the stones. On the far side, they found that the entrance to the burial mound had been excavated fairly recently, leaving a tiny tunnel.
After Odo said that it had probably been excavated by a necromancer while rapidly shifting his eyes back and forth, Lukas crawled in alone with a Light on, followed shortly by Puddin'. The tunnel opened up slightly to a stone burial chamber, with a fresh decapitated body just over the threshold, but no head. In the center of the chamber was a looming stone sarcophagus, and a single basalt tile stretched across the entrance. Puddin' took a look around and noticed that the basalt tile was a pressure plate attached to neck-scything blades that came out of the wall.
A brief argument ensued ("Well, case closed, let's leave." "We should at least check what's inside the sarcophagus." "Do you want to break the laws of proper burial?" "What exactly are the laws of proper burial?" "1) Bury it. 2) Leave it alone for eternity"). Lukas dragged the corpse out and then used his shovel to seal the tomb back up.
Amothius 45th, Plains
While marching through long grass, the party heard a wrong-sounding rooster warble getting steadily closer, which Vaelcor identified ("Guys, the book is open to the Cockatrice page!" "Shhhhhhhh") as a cockatrice! A chicken with a lizard tail and some scales walked out of the grass and right among the party. Puddin' handed Vaelcor a Gizmo'd pocket mirror, and he was able to see it fly right at him.
Vaelcor dodged, and then Jahn All-Out Attacked and swatted the cockatrice with its mighty paws, but the cockatrice dodged everything. Vaelcor passed the mirror over to Elana, but she opened her eyes with the cockatrice in view and took some damage. The cockatrice pecked at Jahn's shins for minimal effect, and she retaliated with a crit swipe for max damage, instantly killing the chicken-lizard (or "chizard").
Amothius 46th, Farmland Outside Isserno
The party passed by several farming villages on their way back to town, and late in the day, Puddin' heard muttering voices from a nearby copse of trees. She went to investigate and overheard one strange voice ordering others to stay while they "talked" to "those people", and a medium group of people grumbling approval. Puddin' headed back to the rest of the party, but just as she made it, a massive man in black plate armour holding a greatsword emerged from the trees and ordered them to halt.
The man demanded the rod segment, claiming to be its rightful owner, and stated that they would give it to him or die. When asked how exactly it was his, the armoured man responded that it was a tool of his master, Miska the Wolf-Spider, and that it had been stolen. After some confusion (Lukas: "Wait, you guys stole something?" Puddin': "Noooooo." Archer: "Yes."), Elana took over as "chief negotiator" and drew her spear, the armoured man bellowed out to attack, and Puddin' noticed a wolf-headed giant spider sneaking up on their left flank.
The armoured man won the Tactics quick contest, gaining two rerolls for their side, and Archer took a shot at his eye, but he parried it out of the air with his sword (though he had to use one of those rerolls after his first roll of the fight was an 18). He charged in, followed by a half-dozen misshapen partly-armoured humanoids with stretched limbs and deformed skin wielding mauls and halberds. The hidden spider jumped on Puddin' but (thanks to Luck and Bless) she managed to dodge it, and Gizmo'd a smoke nageteppo.
Elana activated her Holy Might, while Vaelcor dropped the chest he was carrying, and Jahn the bear moved up and bit the spider. Lukas cast Shield 4 on Elana, boosting her defences to ludicrous levels. Archer ran away from everyone while firing an arrow into one of the spider's eyes, stunning it. The armoured man tried a Rapid-Strike on Puddin', but she managed to parry both, and, despite much worrying, her katar did not shatter. The deformed people made it into range and attacked those on the frontline (mostly Puddin' and Vaelcor, surprisingly), but nobody was injured.
Puddin' tossed her smoke bomb generating a giant cloud covering herself, Jahn, and the spider. Elana made a highly deceptive attack on the armoured man, but was parried. Odo and Mahk backed up, away from the fight. Jahn got confused by the smoke and turned around to, running right into Vaelcor. Archer fired another arrow at the big man while running away, but he parried it again. The black-armoured man switched targets to Elana with a flurry of Rapid Strikes, which she managed to avoid with a parry and two dodges, largely thanks to Lukas' Shield.
The rest of the deformed made it into range, one going for Archer and the rest targeting Elana, but none landed an attack. The spider, having recovered from stun and made the Hearing check to know where people were, leapt out of the smoke to attack Vaelcor, but missed. Puddin' tried to Disappear but failed, and Elana went for one of the mooks' eyes with a deceptive attack, but against all odds, he managed to parry. Vaelcor used Luck to cast Pollen Cloud on a big clump of enemies, including the big man, while Jahn pummelled the spider. Odo retreated further into another copse of trees at their backs, and cast a spell.
Notes:
Masha was sent to the nega-zone after the first combat was over, so she got her XP.
Forgot the long-distance modifiers on the first cast of Pathfinder in the swamp, so it had no penalty when it should have been -6 or -7.
I'm surprised there were only 2/9 failures on the check to not fall asleep in the swamp. I expected Lukas to make it (Will 15 + Resistance: Evil Supernatural Powers +3), but it was Will-4 and most of the others have Will<12.
The stirges were very eye-hungry, and should probably have tried other unarmoured locations with deceptive attacks. There should also have been more of them, both to pose more of a threat, and so that the party could get XP.
I thought that Takedown required two hands, but apparently you can do it one-handed unpenalized.
XP was 1, MVP was Vaelcor for healing.
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