The Pink Dice Chronicles

The party was facing down one last beholder.  Victaerrus charged and attacked but missed.  Calleel cast a spell and in a moment of great power, killed the beholder outright.  The party went on to loot the beholder caves of many pieces of equipment.  They helped the kobolds and several slaves as they looked for an exit.  Below in the dark throne room they found a quickly fading portal.  It took them back to the surface. Above ground, they landed on the top of the temple.  There was much rejoicing by the gnomes.  Palarandusk and Elminster appeared, commented a bit on the new party, scared the new 16 year old party member, and took the mace.  Word was that they were to return after a week.  In the meantime they had other troubles. In the local tavern, they walked past the hundreds of years old painting of the party that entered the temple.  Few were left.  The toll was high. Ahkra, Corrail's cousin, was there, waiting on the...

The druid and Nickolai's players have developed work conflicts, so their characters find their ends in this week's game. --- When last we left our Pathfinding party, they were stuck behind a closed door in a beholder nursery. Callel, standing by one of the older beholder children, was ordered to open the door.  He opened the door -- Corrail closed it.  This repeated.  Caleel then cast a spell and walked through the wall into the secret corridor. The beholder babies mercilessly blasted Nickolai, who unprotected from the magic, was killed instantly. Caleel, wanting to leave behind his life as a slave, others quickly formulated a plan with the others.  The others hid back in the corridor while Caleel lured in the beholder child.  Once he was in the room, they closed the door and attacked, ambushing the beholder and quickly killing it. From there the party proceeded next door through a parlor.  In the adjacent room, they spotted a sleeping beholder....

I had a topic come up in the context of the Thursday night game that reinforced an element of character play that I had come across last time I played:  character narration.  To discuss this element I want to talk about the magic circle, framing and bleed.  If you're not familiar with these topics, EmergentPlay has excellent discussions of all three topics:   The Magic Circle , Frames , Bleed . Imagine when your gaming rituals start.  Maybe you start by reviewing your character sheet before leaving for the game.  Maybe you sit at the game table, trying to remember what happened last time.  When I prepped for playing Crayla, my crass irreverant ranger, I would play certain songs, and even watch scenes of certain movies (the Alien movie with Sigourney Weaver playing basketball). Entering the magic circle of gaming often involves transforming our behavior into that of the character, getting into their head, their senses, their feelings, and the situat...

The paty started off this time by backtracking to a previously unexplored area.  It was an octagonal room, with several large pillars.  Each pillar had a face with two arms and two legs on each side.  Felix, paranoid as usual, explored the room slowly with Yuri and Corrail keeping watch.  The room was empty and uneventful. The party then proceeded on deeper into the tomb.  The next room was very long with many pillars all covered in mirrors.  The walls were covered in mirrors.  The room was dark.  The party edged through slowly, using Felix's ropes of climbing to keep the party together and moving straight in the confusing space.  About 50 feet along the room, Corrail spotted shadows moving ahead.  A few steps later, Victaerus, who was out front, was attacked, having the strength sapped out of her by two shadowy creatures. The party attacked for several rounds, all the while Victaerus got pounded.  She was barely able to walk by...

Aboard the dead ship, the druid, Sheena, and Victaerus watched, backed by the rest of the boarding party.  The Sandman warned the oncoming group not to proceed, holding a torch over the hold.  Sheena went invisible and rushed up to him.  He dropped the torch and Sheena caught it.  The sandman dropped through the floor as sand running between the planks.  The Druid turned ethereal and dropped below, just in time to see the Sandman grab another torch from the wall and toss it into a pile of scrolls and black powder.  A blast erupted, magical burst followed by the explosion. --- The party of Corrail, Felix, the tiger, Yuri the winter wolf, Kiva, Chum the golem, and the rest defeated the two Dark Nagas.  The creatures nearby in the shadows skittered off into cracks and crevices into parts unknown.  Kiva suggested the party rest here.  Chum reinforced the door.  Felix searched the room and found nothing of value, not even food. Felix pu...

So we've lost a few players along the way, so now I am strongly considering combining the Pathfinder campaigns.  The Monday Night Pathfinder Pirates campaign has been taking place in the same world as the Friday Night Pathfinder campaign.  So how could this combination of campaigns possible happen?  First lets start with the current state of things in both: On Monday Nights, the crew of the Celestial Kyte is being followed by the massive Zelbinion as they make their way to the Cimarine Isles.  When last we left the crew, they had boarded a derelict ship out of Candlekeep that seems to have one sandman creature aboard that they've seen thus far.  He became very agitated about some scrolls and was threatening to drop a torch into the hold.  This is particularly frightening since the black powder wasn't anywhere else on the ship and yet there are numerous destroyed cannons strewn about. On Friday Night, the group has descended into a 10...

The Celestial Kyte, having successfully navigated through the Whalebones, took off from the Zelbinion to get back to piracy.  They easily overtook a cargo vessel their first day out, gather more plunder to move aboard the Zelbinion for safe keeping. The second day out the Celestial Kyte came across a dead ship, burnt sails with a large hole in the main deck and side.  No cannons were visible on the gunnery deck.  No people were visible on the main deck. Captain Taerl brought the Kyte around slowly into 100 foot range of the dead ship.  From this view, the crew was able to discern that despite being dead, the ship was loaded down with cargo of some sort.  While Kyte readied the boarding party (with all the PCs included), the Druid dove overboard, morphed into his shark form and headed for the dead ship. He was able to circle the ship and asses that there was no damage below the waterline. The ship was a well-known ship gifted by the Waterdeep lead...

The Celestial Kyte and Zelbinion continued their journey southward to the Cimarine Isles.  First they encountered a galley out of Waterdeep.  They through up a Shadowdale flag, and were requested to parlay. Sandara, the Besmarian cleric and first mate, took the longboat out to meet the other ship's first mate.  After negotiation, she returned and then took a chest of gold back to the other ship to pay for passage.  A pidgeon arrived from the Zelbinion indicating it was time to change course to head around the Whalebones to avoid Waterdeep's ships and navy.  The Zelbinion avoided further entanglements enroute by turning invisible thanks to the mad wizard aboard. Once underway, the Kyte encountered a Ruathym warship, warning the Kyte to turn back, via a magical booming voice across the water.  Captain Taerl tried to send out a message to the Zelbinion, but his poor pidgeon was blown away when the warship fired across their bow.  The Celestial Kyte head...

Monday night brought the players back together for the first time in a long time.  With two players missing, the action was a bit light.  The Celestial Kyte sailed back to the Zelbinion without incident and the Zelbinion was unscathed, despite being in hostile waters.  The new gunslinger Jericho spent most of his time keeping watch from the tree / crow's nest with the Druid. Kroop spent some time with the new crazy wizard and then called a meeting of both crews.  The crazy wizard was acting as mage on the Zelbinion.  Kyte was going to be taking the Celestial Kyte's caster position.  A new captain was taking over the Kyte, as well. In a separate meeting of the officers and chiefs, Kroop explained the plan.  The Kyte was going to sail 4 hours ahead of the Zelbinion for the Cimarine Isles.  They were heading for Tortuga, but planned to pick up some plunder along the way.  The Kyte would chase them down, and if she got in trouble, she'd ...

Kroop was quick to split the crew and get the Celestial Kyte away.  With Sandara as captain, the Kyte made for the squib, the bodies of Kyte and Durgen brought along.  Sheena, Victaerus, and the Druid were part of the Kyte's crew.  The plan was to get the Kyte repaired, supplies and crew for the Zelbinion, and find someone to help repair the magic aboard the Zelbinion and perhaps help strengthen the defenses of the Celestial Kyte. Arrival at the Iceflow Squib was a bad sight.  The outer walls was in shambles, the old ruins, temple, and inn were in flames, and dead bodies of townsfolk and frost giants littered the town.  An ugly gunman with a handmade musket watched from the tower as the Kyte docked. Giffen, the Aquarvan (Crocodile Man) barbarian jumped shipped, hysterical at finding his old squib friend Rickety Hake dead by the squib dock.  Sandara grabbed Victaerus and headed to the remaining temple -- a temple of Besmara.  Inside, three priests f...

The Zelbinion made landfall in a fjord in the treacherous, icy north.  Unfortunately, the fjord was under patrol of three ships of frost giants that inhabit the area.  The Zelbinion spun to broadside the giant's ships while Durgen ducked behind with Celestial Kyte.  The gunnery crews slowly moved all the cannons to bring a full set to bear on the incoming ships.  The giants fired off ballistas while the cannons pounded back.  Caster brought flames down on the giants. The druid destroyed one ballista with fire, while Kyte set fire to the incoming ship. Two of the smaller ships fled, while the largest, on fire, drew close into the Zelbinion for boarding.  The officers faced 6 Frost Giants themselves, as Durgen left the Kyte to help the fight aboard the Zelbinion.  The Frost Giants pounded away on the officers, forcing Sheena below to snipe at them and getting Durgen and Kyte both killed.  Finally, Kroop enabled the blade barrier, and the...

Monday night was a night of answering questions.  There was drinking of rum when it was announced that the Zelbinion had been cleared.  Kroop passed around the story of how he saved the day by disarming the bomb on the lower level.  Kyte called the crew together for time to elect a captain.  Durgen and Kroop were nominated and Kroop was obviously the more popular.  He quickly grabbed Durgen and suggested he take control of the Celestial Kyte. After the partying was over, Kroop called the officers and select other crew together.  The druid was working on repairs to the Zelbinion bilge pumps and steering mechanism.  Kyte was working on keying the tiller to Kroop's old pocket watch.  Sheena took over cook's duties.  Durgen chose his pyro gunner to accompany him.  Victaerus was assigned to ready the boarding party just in case. The plan was to sail north north east till they hit the coast and then send just the Celestial Kyte to the squi...

Two players were out (Durgen & the Druid) so I played them through and the crew cleared out the three remaining elementals on the lower ship deck.  While Durgen and the Druid repaired the bilge pumps, the rest of the group searched the rooms, carefully avoiding the alchemists lab which had a reasonable chance of blowing up.  Unfortunately, a bomb was triggered in another room, but Kroop was able to disarm it with Sheena's help before it blew a hole in the ship.  With the Zelbinion now cleared, the crew gets to make all the difficult decisions: Who is the new captain? Where are they sailing to? What ship or ships are they taking? Where are they mounting the weapons? How are they going to get one or both of the ships repaired? How are they going to avoid the Zelbinion becoming a focus for other pirates, privateers, and navies? The good news is that the group now has several months of rations, so there are lots of options.

New characters are dominating my gaming life right now.  I've gotten a spot in a Saturday night Pathfinder game, so I am underway in building my new character.  The party currently consists of a sorcerer and a cleric, so rogue skills are needed.  I don't really want to play a rogue, though.  I don't even really want to play any class.  So my plan was to make up my own unique combination. I want to be able to tank. I need a moderate number of skill points, so I can cover rogue skills for traps. I need feats, because I want to get a prestige class early. Rogues really need dex, so I need to be a quick fighter (dex-based).  Fighter is THE class for feats.  Shadowdancer seems like a fun prestige class that one can hit the requirements for early. For race, I looked really close at elf and human.  Human's bonus feat is nice, but only a real advantage at first level.  Elf has nice ability boosts, but half-elf gets a lot of the elf stuff and ...

The party continued their exploration of the Zelbinion.  The party found rum rations, rations, and a load of black powder.  In the brig a medium water elemental attacked just after they escaped from a wraith.  One room had forty dead bodies in it.  Another had 4 broken cages, a break in the floor into the hold below, and seven more dead bodies. On the lower level, the group awakened two more elementals, a large water elemental and a medium fire elemental.  The battle was still underway at the end of the session.

This week I had the sad duty of eliminating the PC captain that was played by a player who left. Captain Jacen approached Durgen aboard the Zelbinion, asking him to load the three kegs of black powder into the longboat along with all the riches gathered since the last trip over.  Giffen appeared aboard a longboat headed to the Zelbinion.  Climbing aboard, the crocodile man handed a note to the Captain.  The Captain grimaced and even Sheen picked up on the problem.  The crew of the Kyte was becoming unhinged.  Durgen planned his solution -- a ritual to 'remove the curse'. The Captain took the longboat back to the Kyte. Cranax below convinced the Druid and Kyte to assist him.  They were going to be coming into a segment of the sea within the next few minutes that would greatly accelerate growth of the plants, and Cranax wanted to get his specimens into the sides nets so they could grow. Meanwhile Kroop below and Sheena above worked searching and openi...

As dawn approached, there was a call out from the crow's nest of the Celestial Kyte.  A dinghy carrying a passed out human girl, perhaps 16 years of age, in heavy armor came into sight.  Sheena swam out to check on her and bring her aboard.  Sandara, the ship healer, patched up her health from the wear of several days at sea.  She awoke scared among the pirate crew, wanting for her shield and sword, and not wanting to share her story with a band of pirates, saviors or not.  The crew noted a marking on her shield, giving away that she was mostly likely part of a merchant crew out of Waterdeep. Fishguts appeared on deck, taking the captain aside, and letting him know that the crew was not liking the cursed ship (marked with large red X's), and wouldn't be going aboard unless thrown there.  It was going to be up to the officers. The magus studied the magical aura of the ship at a distance and the runes of the rails.  The magic pervaded every bit of th...