Session 11: Befriending the Feys

in which the group explores the southern reaches marked in their exploration charter and befriend the prankster feys


Scouting the Stag Lord's fort
The adventurers set out early at a good pace with their kobold guide. It was easy following the Shrike River towards the Tuskwater Lake, and although their path was blocked from time to time by gullies and small canyons, the kobold was able to choose the correct path to overcome those obstacles without losing much time. In the evening they saw in the distance the Stag Lord's fort.

The fort was an almost ruined structure consisting of one main stone building with half-collapsed ceiling surrounded by three wooden towers, standing atop a hill. A narrow path of hard-packed earth winded up the hillside approaching the fort, a path 30 feet wide, 300 feet long, offering no cover to anyone approaching the fort. The remaining hillside surrounding the fort was a swath of hill devoid of shrubbery save for isolated thorny vines, though periodic large boulders provided better cover for a stealthy approach.

The adventurer's made camp one mile away from the fort and waited for dusk. While Cardot and Am stayed with the horses and the kobold, Kii and Gam'el'Gar approached the fort, their low-light vision helping them navigate the dark landscape without any problem. They stayed in the cover of the vegetation surrounding the fort's hill, approximately 300 feet (100m) from the fort, and started moving around the fortification, keeping always in cover. From that distance, they could hear laughter and the sounds of discussions coming from inside the fort, and they also noticed that each of the wooden towers had one guard, though apparently they only paid attention to the main path approaching the fort, with hardly a glance to the surrounding hillsides.

The Stag Lord's Fort

After two hours spying on the fort, Kii and Gam'el'Gar returned to camp, and the group decided to go back to Oleg's to better prepare for an assault on the fort. They were worried by the letters from Kii's cousin warning them of the impending arrival of some mercenaries... they had to hit early if they wanted to have the upper hand! Still, some extra help would be advisable, so they would try to approach the feys again to try to ally with them.

The Fangberry Thicket

As the area where the kobold had seen the fangberry bushes was not too far from their way back to Oleg, the adventurers explored the area and found the fangberry thicket in a small canyon.

While Am and Gam'el'Gar kept guard with their bows prepared, Kii and Cardot started collecting the berries. The process was very difficult, because they had sharp thorns that pierced their gloves with ease... To make matters worse, a swarm of spiders assaulted Kii and Cardot and soon they were running for their lifes... Am and Gam'el'Gar attacked the swarm with torches, and with the use of the Burning Hands wand of Kii and a couple well-placed torch sweeps, the group managed to defeat the spiders.


The Rickety Bridge

Further to the north, the adventurers found an old wooden bridge that spanned a 20-foot deep gulch through which the river Thorn flowed. Kii crossed the bridge alone to test its strength and, though the bridge resisted, it groaned and cracked, so the adventurers decided not to cross it with the horses. This meant that, in order to cross the Thorn river to the east, they would have to use the fords situated approximately 12 miles upriver (the first bandit camp the adventurers had attacked) or 12 miles downriver (a bit upstream from where the Thorn River met the Shrike).

Because of this, it took them a bit longer to explore the area surrounding the bridge, but they were lucky and did not meet any further obstacle to their exploration, and reached the Thorn River bandit camp in the evening, with enough time to relax and prepare camp, after several nights sleeping on wet and windy ground. During the night, Gam'el'Gar was the target of more of the feys' pranks.


Befriending the feys

In the morning, the adventurers saw very dark storm clouds approaching. Gam'el'Gar estimated that they could hit them a bit before reaching the feys' lair... A short discussion ensued in which they decided to risk the trip and luck smiled on them, because they reached the feys' lair shortly before high winds and heavy rain announced the storm arrival.

Near the lair, the adventurers decided they had to accelerate their contact with the feys and decided to spend one Cure Light Wounds potion each as a gift to the feys. Cardot, who had already befriended them also helped by pulling out the best beer he had ever brewed... he almost could not help consuming it himself!

So the adventurers left the gifts (beer, candies, small trinkets and the magical potions) at the base of the feys' tree, and this time the feys were so pleased by the gifts that they showed themselves to the adventurers: Tyg-Titter-Tut (an excitable grig, with the upper body of a beautiful maiden and the lower body of a cricket)  and Perlivash (a butterfly-winged dragon). They were both the size of a cat and chatted excitedly among themselves and with their new friends.

Tyg-Tiiter-Tut

 They told them that they were much nicer than "the nasty bigginses that used to live in the Thorn River camp". Tyg-Titter-Tut even played her little violin while swinging to the rythym... the night went on with plenty of jokes, stories from all the participants and in general a pleasant feeling... even the heavy rain and strong wind seemed to avoid the adventurers' camp.

Perlivash

 Cardot convinced the feys to help the adventurers explore the Stag Lord's fort, even playing some pranks on their occupants. They agreed that they would meet in the nearby radish patch in a few days, after the adventurers had prepared at Oleg's for the days to come.

The following morning, the sky was crisp blue, the smell of the wet forest invigorated the adventurers... they had managed an alliance with two unlikely parties, the feys and the kobolds... would that be enough for their assault on the Stag Lord's fort?



XP:
- 100 (exploring the Fangberry Thicket hex)
- 100 (exploring the Rickety Bridge hex)
- 1000 (befriending the feys Tyg-Titter-Tut and Perlivash)
Total this session: 1200XP
Total campaign: 18,380XP

Loot:
- Fangberries.
- Spent 3 Cure Light Wound potions to befriend the feys.

Time Passed:
- 4 days.
The time now is 14th Gozran (April), in the morning. The group is at the feys' lair.

Extra Buildings

Buildings errata:

Barracks (6 BP):Defense Modifier +2; Unrest –1.
Exotic Craftsman (10 BP):1 minor item, +1 Economy, +1 Stability.


Non-City Buildings
Presented below are additional buildings and improvements that can be build outside of cities. Please note that constructing any of these improvements takes the place of the "build a farm" action in your kingdom turn.
Please also note that Camps, Farms and Mines are mutually exclusive - you can have a farm OR a mine OR a camp in a hex. None of these improvements represent a single building in a 12-mile hex. It's not just one farm, or just one mine, or just one camp. Building means you have devoted the primary physical and human resources of that hex to the activity of farming (farm), mining (mine) or logging (camp).


Lock: (8 BP). A lock allows ships to traverse along height differences in a river. A Lock turns three hexes of unnavigable rivers navigable and provides a +2 Economy bonus.
Terraforming: Instead of building a farm hex, you can convert a forest hex into hills or a swamp into grassland. This takes 6 months and costs 24 BP. You could also plant a forest in a grassland or hills hex for the same cost. You continue to gain the benefits of a camp during terraforming, but at the end of the terraforming it is destroyed.

Hidden wrist sheaths

You can try to draw an item hidden in the wrist sheath as a Move (normal wrist sheath) or Swift (spring-loaded wrist sheath) action during your turn by passing a DC10 Dexterity check.
You'll have a +1 bonus to this check if you have Sleight of Hand trained (i.e. it is a class skill with ranks). You'll also get a +1 bonus for each 2 full ranks you have in Sleight of Hand.

If you fail the check, then you'll need a Standard action (this is normal for a hidden item as mentioned in the Sleight of Hand skill).

If you fumble (you roll first a 1 and then fail the roll in the confirmation check) the item will fall to the ground. In the case of a spring-loaded sheath, after rolling a 1 you also need to pass a DC10 Luck check. If you fail this check, then the spring is broken. Until you repair the spring with a DC15 Crafts(weapons or traps) check (or paying 1/4 of its value to an artisan) it will count as a normal wrist sheath.

Finally, these sheaths give a +2 to your Sleight of Hand check to hide a weapon (this is taken from the item's description).


Masterwork Wrist Sheaths
Remember you can also have a masterwork wrist sheath. They cost an extra 300gp (or 100 gp ? check with JL )but they'll give a +2 to the Dexterity check to draw the hidden weapon.

Wearing wrist sheaths in the open
You can decide to wear the wrist sheath in the open (i.e. not hidden under your sleeves, etc.). In this case, you don't need to roll for a regular wrist sheath, and a failure in the check for a spring-loaded one means you'll need the normal Move action to draw the weapon (instead of the Swift).

Session 10: Meet the Sootscales

in which the group tries to forge an alliance with a tribe of Kobolds

Mikmek was anxious to get back to his tribe with the statue, but the group wanted to explore first the area and continue documenting the region. The hills around the Old Sycamore were rugged, and only thanks to the savvy of Gam'el'gar, they could navigate the maze of canyons and ravines without getting lost.

In one of the ravines, the group encountered a strange creature, an 8 feet tall bizarre half-bear, half-owl monstrosity, that was feeding on a prey, apparently a deer. Kii had read somewhere about these strange creatures, called Owlbears. In wizardry circles, it was believed that they were the result of some deranged wizard's experiments. The creatures were dangerous and extremely aggressive, so the group decided to give it a wide berth. Nevertheless, Kii mentioned that young owlbears fetched a high price in the cities' markets, and he also remembered that, during the interrogation of some of the captured bandits, one of them had mentioned that the Stag Lord kept a horrible pet, a mix of owl and bear, called Beaky... but from what Kii had read, Owlbears were feral and impossible to truly domesticate...

During their exploration, the group was caught by a thunderstorm and got quite wet. That night they slept again in the Mites' lair; only Cardot's coughs broke from time to time the silence in the caverns: apparently they had found a safe place to sleep, at least for the moment.

In the morning, Mikmek led the group to the entrance of the Kobolds' lair. A fallen sign reading "Oaktop Silver Mine" leaned against the side of a narrow opening in an outcropping of large boulders that emerged from the weathered face of a hill. When the characters approached the entrance with Mikmek they saw a cage made of branches and sticks with a Mite and a Man in it! When the man saw the characters, he started shouting: "Help! Please help me! My name is Rufus Seadwell and these monsters have kidnapped me!"... Things seemed to start getting interesting...

The group told Rufus to calm down, and that they would soon rescue them. He did not seem very pleased when the characters followed Mikmek into the kobolds' lair. As they navigated the small tunnels, several kobold guards joined the group and escorted them to the common room of the kobolds. There they met Chief Sootscale and most of the tribe; the Chief seemed confused and unsure on what to do, and the heroes requested an alliance in exchange for the Statue of Old Sharptooth.

Just as the Chief was reluctantly accepting the deal, a strange purple scaled kobold made his appearance. Four tough looking kobolds came with him, and he had the vestments of a shaman... This was the strange interloper shaman that the Sootscale kobolds feared and that had started a war between the kobolds and the mites!

Tartuk, the Kobold-Gnome Shaman

A tense discussion started in which Tartuk, the purple scaled kobold, tried to intimidate the tribe and to force them into attacking the group while the characters tried to convince the kobold that they should revolt and that they could help them get rid of the shaman. After several minutes of discussion, the negotiations ended abruptly in violence; the group had managed to convince many in the tribe that they were powerful enough, so Tartuk tried to escape, but Am managed to grab him and pin him to the ground.

As soon as the heroes gave him the statue, Chief Sootscale destroyed it and the kobolds started dancing and hugging each other, some of them even daring to kiss and hug the strangers that had saved them from Tartuk's tyranny.

In the loot of the tribe, the group found Svetlana's ring, which had been robbed by the bandits, then by the Mites, and finally by the kobolds. They also found Tartuk's diary, which told his sad story:

Tartuk was not born a kobold—he was
born a gnome. He was killed in a fight against a group
of ogres who were tormenting his village, but his
accidentally heroic sacrifice was enough to give his village
a chance to defeat the ogres. The village, sorrowed by
Tartuk’s death, unanimously voted to restore him to
life—so they decided to use a scroll of reincarnate that had
sat in the village treasury for years. In an ironic twist of
fate, poor Tartuk came back as a kobold.
Scandalized, the village didn’t know how to react.

Tartuk did—he hadn’t meant to give his life to save
the village (he’d actually been trying to surrender to
the ogres and offer to help them destroy the village in
return for sparing his life, but the ogres crushed him

before he got his offer out), and now they’d turned him
into one of the most hated of monsters—a kobold! The
fact that his new scales were the same deep purple as his
hair in his previous life served only to ensure Tartuk’s
shame. Enraged, he fled into the woods, only to nurse a
deep grudge. 

He found a tribe of kobolds, joined them,
used his magic and manipulative lies to rally them, and
led his new army in an attack against his old village. The
resulting battle was furious, and only Tartuk survived.
That was fine with him.

Since then, the mad kobold has drifted through several
River Kingdoms, periodically haunting towns and
murdering gnomes he finds and at others insinuating
himself into kobold tribes, taking them over from within,
and then driving them to extinction by forcing them into
wars they can’t possibly win. The Sootscales are but Tartuk’s
latest project. He has used a combination of lies, magic, and his
favorite tool—a non-magical statue of a devil—to seize
control of a tribe. He’s become quite skilled at convincing
tribes that the statue is magic and that it will curse the
entire tribe if the chieftain doesn’t follow its commands—
commands, of course, that only Tartuk can hear.

Tucked into the back of the journal is a single scroll of fly;
his journal indicates that when he grows tired of his life,
he intends to use the scroll to fly up as high as he can,
effectively committing suicide when the spell expires in
5 minutes and leaves him at a height of nearly 2,000 feet,
well out of the safety range for the spell’s expiration.

(story taken from module 31 of Pathfinder, "The Stolen Land")

After the short battle, the group negotiated with Chief Sootscale an alliance with the kobolds tribe, which was sealed during a kobold ritual in which the characters had to dance, eat some musty mushrooms and share hugs with half the kobold tribe... The main points of the (verbal) agreement were, more or less:
1. In exchange for weekly shipments of food and adequate mining tools, the kobolds would provide the silver they obtained in their caverns.
2. Chief Sootscale demanded Tartuk's magical bracers, the masterwork metal shield and the magical crossbow bolts. He gave the rest of the tribe's loot to the adventurers in payment of their help on ridding the tribe of Tartuk.
3. Tartuk's tribe was to be decided by Chief Sootscale...
4. The Chief agreed to accept the adventurer's ruling in future problems with neighbours and also agreed to stop attacking any merchants, in exchange for the adventurers' protection.
5. Finally, the Chief also agreed to lend the support of some of his brave warriors in a future assault on the Stag Lord's fort.

Rufus Seadwell demanded that the kobolds should be punished for having held him prisoner. The adventurers argued with him that the kobolds were not the main culprits, as they had been pushed to these bad decisions by Tartuk. Still, Rufus Seadwell was not convinced, so the adventurers agreed not to receive any reward and offered him his unconditional freedom. The merchant still seemed a bit unconvinced, but seeing he would not gain anything more reluctantly agreed and left the Kobolds' lair.


The characters then discussed with Chief Sootscale about the surrounding lands. The kobolds had knowledge of the location of the Stag Lord's fort and of a field with many fangberry bushes, and the Chief agreed to provide them with a guide.

With the feeling of a difficult negotiation satisfactorily concluded, the adventurers stayed that night in the Kobolds' lair, and took part of their strange celebration of their liberation from Tartuk's machinations.

XP:
- 100 (exploring the Old Sycamore hex)
- 400 (completing the quest The Sacred Statue of the Kobolds)
- 3200 (defeating the Shaman Tartuk and allying with the Sootscale tribe)
Total this session: 3700XP
Total campaign: 17,180XP

Loot:
- On Tartuk:
    i. Tartuk's personal journal.
    ii. a magic wand (wand of Magic Missile; 28 charges).
    iii. magical bracers (Chief Sootscale obtained it during the negotiations).
    iv. masterwork cold iron sickle.
    v. a magic scroll (scroll of Fly).
- Kobolds' Loot (piled in Tartuk's quarters together with all sorts of worthless shiny objects):
    i. 500 gp.
    ii. masterwork metal shield (Chief Sootscale obtained it during the negotiations).
    iii. 7 magic crossbow bolts (+1 flaming crossbow bolts) (Chief Sootscale obtained them during the negotiations).
    iv. a pair of magic boots (boots of elvenkind).
    v. a leather bag with 400gp, a plain brass wedding ring (Svetlana's), and a pouch containing magic dust.

Time Passed:
- 2 days.
The time now is 10th Gozran (April), in the morning. The group is in the lair of the Sootscale kobold tribe, in the old Oaktop Silver Mine.

Session 9: Under the Old Sycamore Tree

in which the characters storm the Mites lair

Grabbles, the "Mite King" on Tickleback

Fighting the Mites
The characters thought that the best course of action was forging an alliance with the Kobold tribe of the Kamelands, and what better way to do it than recover their statue, which had been stolen by the pitiful Mites?

It took them three days to arrive at the Old Sycamore, a graying hulk of a tree that loomed over the hills in the northern Kamelands. Visible for miles around, they had no problem approaching the tree in the early morning of their third day of travel. A root-lined shaft, hidden amid the ancient tree roots, descended into a network of narrow tunnels. Though the group descended carefully and surprised two mites in the first cavern, it took them too long to overcome them, and the noise alerted some of the other Mites.

Kii, who was exploring in front of the group, was ambushed by a group of six mites in a cave the mites used to torment their prisoners. A pitched battle ensued, and the noise attracted a gargantuan centipede from a nearby chasm that pinned Gam'el'gar against the walls of the cave. When all seemed lost for the ranger, several precise shots from Am's bow put the critter down.

In the meantime, Kii had been busy with his wand of Color Spray and most of the mites were unconscious on the ground. While Cardot healed the group, a second wave of mites, this time led by its "king" Grabbles and strengthened with three giant centipedes, surrounded the characters. Grabbles was riding a giant tick, shouting orders to his subjects, but apparently to a poor result, because the mites and their centipede pets showed at all times very poor tactical judgement.

Conversation with Mikmek the kobold
In the end, the group prevailed, although the battle left them exhausted, and Kii was almost crushed to death by the giant tick's pincers. In the torment chamber, one kobold prisoner was still alive: Mikmek. Mikmek promised the characters many fine treasures if they helped him recover the statue. During their conversation, the characters learned that the kobold tribe had two leaders, a shaman named Tartuk, and the old chief Sootscale. The characters noticed that Mikmek seemed nervous when describing the relationship of these two with the statue, so after a bit of pressure, he gave them a lot of information about the tribe.

Apparently the relations between the two leaders were strained. Mikmek described Tartuk as a "magical kobold" that had joined the tribe some months before. Tartuk told them that the statue, Old Sharptooth, was magical and that it would increase the strength of the tribe. They had prayed to the "Rope God in the Glowing Cave" before (at this, the characters remembered the crude altar they had seen in the golden cavern some days before, in which they had been attacked by a strange crab-like creature) but the few kobolds that objected to this change soon became ill and died, their scales turning yellow, dry, and brittle.

Tartuk had ordered the kobolds to attack the mites to increase the territory controlled by the tribe, and they had even started attacking and robbing some human merchants. Whenever they suffered a setback, some kobolds were sacrificed to Old Sharptooth to ask for his forgiveness and power. When the Mites robbed the statue, Tartuk told them that it was a priority to recover it, as otherwise they would be punished for their weakness. Mikmek had been part of a failed expedition to recover the statue.

Exploring the Mites´ lair
After a short rest, they explored thoroughly the Mites´ lair, and found the Kobold's statuette, together with a list written in Undercommon with two columns labeled "Us" and "Them". The "Us" column listed "kobold statue" and "lots of spears and coins", whereas the "Them" column listed "magic dust", "lots of coins" and "shiny human ring". The small statue depicted a crouching horned devil and was a beautiful work of art; the characters examined it carefully but could not discover anything about the statue except the obvious.

Finally, as both Kii and Gam'el'gar were in bad shape, they decided to stay the rest of the day and that night in the lair. As it was pouring rain outside, they all felt lucky to be indoors. During the night, they discussed how to approach the kobolds and gain their confidence to form an alliance.

XP:
- 1900 (Mites)
- 600 (Giant Centipedes)
- 600 (Gargantuan Centipede)
- 935 (Grabbles and Tickleback)
Total this session: 4035XP
Total campaign: 13,480XP

Loot:
- kobold statuette (fine work of art depicting a crouching horned devil).
- 50gp.
- Necklace with a strange coin with both faces depicting a face of a beautiful woman.
- Centipede parts useful for alchemical ingredients.

Time Passed:
- A bit more than 3 days.
The time now is 8th Gozran (April), in the morning. The group is at the Old Sycamore.

Buying items through Oleg and Svetlana

Mundane Items (things that cost less than 10gp or that make sense to have available for explorers, merchants and trappers)  

At any moment, Oleg has approximately 500gp of equipment available for you. This is mundane equipment: armor, weapons, adventuring gear, some alchemical items (sunrods, for example)... In general, he won't have more than 50gp invested in the same type of item.  
The available equipment is replenished once a week, on the first day of the week.

Special and magic items

For special and magic items you will have to order them and he'll be able to provide them in 5-10 days, depending on whether he finds someone that sells them in Restov or needs to find a contact in New Stetven, which is farther away... Pitax is a den of thieves and bandits, not suitable for honest commerce (this is what Oleg tells you)... As for the exact number of days, we'll decide it using a Luck check (done by the person for which the item is intended). The time will be 5 days + 1 day for each point of difference between your luck test and 11; maximum number of days will be 10.

- A 20+ (or natural 20) in the Luck check means the object is available immediately with a 20% discount.

- A 1- (or natural 1) in the Luck check means the object is not available at that moment. You can retry the check 10 days later, but the item will cost an extra 20%.

Special treatment from Oleg

Thanks to your help with the bandits, Oleg will provide boarding at his lodge at half price, he will also waive his commission for bringing special items, i.e., he'll assume the risk of the item(s) being stolen. On top of that, and also thanks to the moon radishes you gave Svetlana, Oleg offers you a discount of 50gp per adventurer for 1 item each (could be the first item you buy).

Alchemical Items (potions, oils, poisons, and similar)

Finally, he also tells you that he buys most alchemical items from a hermit called Bokken, who has a hut 15 miles east of Oleg's Trading Post. Bokken also brews potions, so it could be well worth the visit... He also agrees to trade with him in your behalf if you prefer it. Therefore, alchemical items and potions will take 1-5 days to arrive (same Luck check as with other magic items, so 1 day+difference of Luck test to reach 11).

- A 20+ (or natural 20) in the Luck check means the object is available immediately with a 20% discount.

- A 1- (or natural 1) in the Luck check means the object is not available at that moment due to lack of components. You can retry the check 5 days later, but the item will cost an extra 20%.

Luck Check

This is a Charisma check, with other modifiers depending on the circumstances.

Map