Holiday Special Edition Pathfinder

So to celebrate the holidays, I hosted a special game at the local game store with a holiday theme.  We had five players, a ton of sugary snacks, and a +3 fruitcake of bludgeoning.  The group all rolled d20s to determine the order in which they would pick characters from the collection of level 15 pregens I had prepared.  Everyone picked a character they liked.  Then, I directed them to give the character to someone else in the spirit of holiday giving.

One player was late, so I picked a class to give him.  He was very happy with it.

So the party consisted of:

• Jinglewood McGarvin, a Tengu Gunslinger with a double barrel musket
• Marco the Vain, a half-elf summoner with a dragon-like eidolon
• Mavery the Ghost, a female Drow Rogue / Shadowndancer
• Triton the Brave, a Samsaran Cleric
• Binks LaForte, a Blue (goblin) Wilder (Psionics)

The party started out in Mirabar, a dwarven mining town.  There someone inquired after them in the bar, looking for an adventuring group to find a lost shop owner named "Saint Claus".  He apparently was a gnome that had "Enlarge Person" perma-casted on him.  He was taken from his shop of elven craftsman that helped him build various gnomish contraptions for the town.

Upon investigation, the party found the elves happy to have the old fat man gone.  He had been dragged out of the shop and into the mountains.  The party followed the trail.

The first encounter was 10 yeti.  It was a nice warm up.  The summoner found out how to kill things quickly with the dragon.  The blue goblin learned the effectiveness of his black dragon breath.  Mavery stayed in the shadows and sniped and backstabbed.  Jinglewood got off some serious shots.  Triton engaged in serious melee.

The next stop lead them into a cave where a local black dragon lived.  The Merovingian, as the locals called him, negotiated with the adventurers, understanding that a fight would not be in his interest.  He was able to negotiate passage with the group for 10000 gold, which the party didn't like, but that they paid anyway.

In the next room, with various platforms giving the room some interesting terrain, a group of Rakshasa ambushed the party.  Spells flew, with PCs blasted by lightning.  Black dragon breath went flying again.  Various spells flashed, healing was needed, and the dragon ate well.  The goblin even ran under the dragon and stabbed a bag guy in the knees.  Gunshots pierced the tunnels and echoed.  Shadows were deadly.

And finally the party found Saint Claus and a Balor named Krampas.  Saint Claus joined the fight but imploded only a couple of rounds into the fight.  The blue was messing with time as the rest of the party blasted away at the Balor.  The gunslinger was even able to shoot the whip out of the Balor's hand.

The Balor was a tough fight.  His attacks really hurt the party and losing Saint Claus was a big problem.  Fire stomr I was saving for the big finish, but I was one turn off on its use.  It would have killed some PCs; it may have TPK'd.  Unfortunately, I didn't use it in time and the Balor died on the double-attack by the blue with Ultrablast.  The group resurrected Saint Claus and headed back to the factor to celebrate.  He gave them gifts and had a merry time and vowed to remember their deed each and every year by sharing gifts with the people.

It was kindof a hokey plot and very combat-centric, but it was fun.  Everyone got to play with something new and interesting.  What more could you ask from a quick 4 hour session?