- Avarlene Tertheniel - the elven Battlelord made a recurring appearance for "The Midnight Mirror", bringing skilled coordination and deadly archery back to the table.
- Thurlavald Turnipnose - this gnome Metamorph was so cool, I couldn't let him wither unplayed, so he was recovered from the "Twin Crossings" reject pile and given a second chance.
- Morek Twiceborn - this forgeborn Tactician from Dreamscarred Press' "Ultimate Psionics" was both the party's communications hub thanks to his Collective Telepathy, and their thug, dropping the big hits with amazing accuracy thanks to his Roshan's inevitable strike power. I learned two things from Morek: Tacticians rock, and forgeborn are not the best race for the class. I brought it together, but it's a good thing Morek doesn't need to worry about the later game and leveling up, because there's all of like two Strategies that don't rely on Charisma.
- Watler - this ratfolk Momenta was a last minute add to the line-up; there was supposed to be a fetchling synergist, but while I was working on Watler for another project, I realized he really needed to be part of this group.
The adventure, set in Paizo's own Golarion, starts when the party is hired by the influential Tiboros family of Nisroch in Nidal. Their daughter Anya married into a noble family, the Borois, in the rural barony of Karpad, and had a daughter two months ago. Her regular communications suddenly ceased without explanation though, and the Tiboros' are desperate to have some word of her, offering the party 5,000 gold for information on her condition and the cause behind her unexpected silence.
The party traveled to Karpad, quickly discovering that things were worse than they could have expected. The town was in the grip of two disasters: a string of disappearances, and a vicious plague dubbed "Tallowthroat" that causes wicked goiters to swell in the throat, eventually erupting and causing death. Some of the human segment of the population has become convinced that the fetchling minority is responsible, and tensions run high. The party decided to head straight to Boroi Manor to get whatever information they could about Anya. Anya herself was there to greet them, revealing that her communications had stopped since all post out of the city had been halted due to the tallowthroat disease. While revealing some concerns about her husband's increasing paranoia, Anya offers to pay the party on top of whatever her parents offered if they can help uncover the source of the disappearances and the plague. Allowing their curiosity to get the better of them, the party accepts.
The party's first stop is to speak to Anya's husband, Baron Stepan Boroi, suspecting that the reports of his paranoia and the town's problems might be connected. While the party was unable to drag any meaningful information from the recalcitrant baron, they did uncover one disturbing clue: the baron Stepan Boroi was a man without a shadow.
As the party left the manor with this unsettling revelation percolating in their minds, a loud disturbance from the town's central square drew their attention. The group quickly discovered that a lynch mob of humans, led by the head watchman Lucian Groy, were in the process of dispensing mob justice to a family of fetchling farmers (say that 10 times fast!). Quickly discerning that Lucian had little (see no) foundation for his accusations and was more than half-mad from tallowthroat and the recent disappearance of his daughter, the party attempted to diffuse the situation. Lucian was having none of it though, and when Thurlavald attempted to use his climb speed and long, viney tendrils to snatch the fetchling family to safety, Lucian finally snapped, attacking Morek and the rest of the crew. The other townspeople dispersed as a fierce battle ensued. Lucian was successfully subdued by a magical sleep arrow from Watler, but not before Morek and Watler contracted tallowthroat themselves.
The party returned a battered and subdued Lucian to his home, and Watler was able to track Lucian's missing daughter to the town's chandlery. Exploring the chandlery, the party discovered a wax golem (quickly subdued), the chandler dead with her throat burst open, and a pair of undead shadows lurking nearby. Avarlene took severe strength damage during the fight with the shadows, but her friends divided as much of her gear as possible amongst themselves (with Watler using his Pack Mule ability to shoulder the lion's share) and she was able to hobble on. Discovering a hidden trap door (complete with trap), the party headed down into the chandlery floor. The candle shop had been converted into a bloody temple, with Ilquis, an evil fey known as a lurker in light, was sacrificing townsfolk in vile rituals to summon his allies over from the First World. Before the party could move against him, Ilquis declared that his activities were sanctioned by the baron himself, and demanded the party leave. The party wavered momentarily, but spying Lucian's daughter encase up to her neck in a vat of wax, they decided to risk the baron's ire if Ilquis' words proved true and attacked the evil fey. Ilquist moved quicker than they could imagine, hurling a blast of light into Morek's eyes and blinding him! As the rest of the group quickly arrayed themselves for battle, a pair of unfortunate townsfolk dominated by Ilquis' magic lurched forward to attack... And then the store closed! We'll be finishing the adventure next Thursday, so stay tuned!
Also, if any of my players are reading this, please remind me to take more pictures (or take them yourselves and send them to me!) so we can add them to the blog posts. This is a lot of text that could use some smiling faces and pictures of sad or amazing die rolls to break up the text : )
Also, if any of my players are reading this, please remind me to take more pictures (or take them yourselves and send them to me!) so we can add them to the blog posts. This is a lot of text that could use some smiling faces and pictures of sad or amazing die rolls to break up the text : )
