c2session2

After the fight, the captain of the guard informs the pcs lord ironside requests an audience. As you make your way to the castle, back through the castle grounds, you see utter devastation, countless bodies, with slash wounds and bite marks, shops partially burned down, glass shattered, buildings in disarray. Panicked survivors searching for and calling out the names of loved ones, mourning the deceased, looking to you and the eagle knights for help. 

You make your way to the lord's throne room, where you see the same man who made the announcement earlier that day, all the light and joy receded from his face. You see a handful of eagle knights and guards standing beside him. There's a few other nobles scattered around. He sees you approach and he says, welcome, heroes of ironcourt. My guards tell me you singlehandedly defended the southern gate. Without your heroic effort, ironcourt would be even more battered and even more of our people slain. I cant thank you enough for your vigilance. But there's no time to stand on ceremony, those creatures have absconded with my daughter, my beautiful isolde. Please, I beg of you, find her, bring her back, no matter the cost. I dread the thought of what those animals will do to her, look what they've done to my kingdom! 

Werecreatures of some sort. God's only know what they want with her. They must be in league with the steelhearts, i have no doubt. A damned fool am I for trusting them. This was premeditated. Plotted. To weaken our standing. 

Lord ironside offers the pcs a +1 weapon from his armory as reward and promises gold for his daughter's safe return. 

As they make their way out they catch Indiana who tells them to follow him. He leads them to a tavern and through a secret door to a large basement where there's a meeting of the brotherhood of broken chains. Like i said, our little group here never believed for one second that steelheart kingdom would ally with andoran. We've heard things here and there through our connections that they had nefarious intentions when they brokered the deal to marry prince Tristan to our princess. The order believe the princess has been taken back to steelheart kingdom to be used in a ritual to merge the plane of hell with the material plane. He pulls out a map and states the fastest way to stahlhaus is by boat on the inner sea. Its about 120 miles from here and overland is through some arrid and difficult terrain, requiring to cross a river unless they went around, taking even more time. The brotherhood also works very closely with another secret organization based in Westcrown, much further down the coastline. The bellflower network, a group who has operated with great success for many years in freeing halfling slaves and snuggling them back to andoran. They have an invaluable knowledge of the inner workings of chelish houses and could be of use. 

campaign 2

The nations of andoran and cheliax are on the brink of war. 

Cheliax, long ago, the birthplace of aroden the god of humanity,  was a just and righteous nation. When aroden died, cheliax was thrust into chaos, with several noble houses engaging in civil war to ascend the vacant throne. House thrune was victorious in this pursuit after making a pact with the powers of hell. The nation became hellbinders and devil worshippers, aligning themselves with the plane of hell and the archdevil asmodeus. They rule their land through tyranny and oppression,  slavery and bigotry. Constantly striving to expand their borders, diabolical cheliax is ruled by her infernal majestrix, queen arbogail II of the thrice damned house of thrune. 

Andoran, long ago, was ruled by cheliax, but when aroden died and house thrune came into power it wasn't long before the people revolted against them. They became a free nation and led by their freedom fighting military unit, the eagle knights, they have sought to eradicate slavery and oppression. 

We begin at castle ironcourt in andoran. Lord jon ironside is hosting a festival to celebrate his eldest daughter, princess isoldes engagement to Tristan of house black, a prince of cheliax. Hundreds of knights, nobles, and small folk are gathered in attendance to join in the revelry. 

The crowd begins to gather by the main castle. Suddenly you see lord ironside emerge, an older man, regally dressed in fine clothes and a modest gold crown sitting atop his head. Accompanying him is a beautiful young girl, with brunette hair that's all done up in intricate braiding. She's wearing a beautiful light blue dress with gold filigree. Around her neck you see a necklace of sparkling diamonds with a jet black stone set in the middle. 

Lord's, ladies, and free citizens of andoran, welcome to ironcourt. We're here today to celebrate a most joyous occasion, my beloved daughters betrothel and the strengthening of our kingdom. Our great house will be united through marriage with house black of cheliax. It's long overdue that a cheliaxian kingdom has renounced and defected from their hellbinding, devil worshipping rulers to join our cause. This alliance marks the beginning of a new day, for liberty, for justice, and for andoran. So come, let us celebrate with feasts, and ale

For tonight we dance, for tomorrow we let slip the dogs of war! 

1. Shell game: the court jester is playing a Shell game, and you watch for a few minutes as other people play and you notice that no one has beaten him yet, very strange. The great cicero contested rolls thievery vs perception. If a spell Caster is present, the jester is cheating, casting invisible object, call for perception checks to break illusion after a couple rounds, detect magic also works. DC 15. If they catch him cheating, he begs them not to tell the lord and can be coerced into giving them the 30gp he's won from less perceptive players. 

2. Lockpicking contest: the locksmith is holding a contest to show off his newest wares. There are 3 chests, they're all very different. The first chest, the lid of this stone cheese is covered with a relief of ivy. Beautiful decorative ivy, wrapping all around the chest. That's all you really see on that one. The second one has a strange stylized writing wrapping around the whole of this smooth rectangular wooden chest, stranger still are the ten small pores that run along the box's lid. The last one, the lock built into this iron cask is in the form of a laughing devil's head about the size of embers fist. The devil's head can be turned in both directions it looks like but there are no numbers to act as a guide. 

Devil head: thievery checks vs stealth DC

3 successive thievery and perception checks, pcs can aid. As you start to handle it you can tell there's 7 separate positions you can spin it into as you're looking at it this is probably similarity to any normal lock you just gotta find the 3 that you need to do and as your moving it to can hear tumblers inside so roll s perception check. You turn it to the left and you hear the tumblers fall into place. Roll another thievery check. Roll another perception check. You turn it to the right tink tink tink you hear the tumblers fall into place and it feels like it's getting looser. Roll one more thievery check. Roll a perception check. You stop short and youre like I need to go a little bit farther, roll one more thievery check. You roll it into place and fagoompf. Inside are several scrolls.  

Ivy safe: nature check or perception you think that at first it looks like it's decorative but it also seems to be obscuring something. Roll a thievery check. Roll a perception check as well. So as your looking at it and examining it you see that there's a series of letters hidden in the leaves as you really start to focus on it and it looks like the correct sequence in which to arrange it spells out a riddle and the riddle is how different now sounds my name, the spelling still remains the same, once prior leap of might, now becomes bird of white. And you think just speaking the words alone could open the chest. Boooosh. Hero point. Inside is thieves toolset and 25gp.

Pore chest- roll a thievery check. You're looking around, feeling it and it reveals as you're searching you see a hidden panel on one side of the chest and you press it and it opens to reveal a small hole but there's no way to open the chest from this hidden panel. The strange letters on the box as something and it's musical notation of a long forgotten tune that can be transcribed to modern notes. So it's like a piece of music. It looks like you can blow into the side hole and depress the holes on top. That's going to be a performance check. Inside are 3 stones with runes etched on them. 

3. Strength contest: A weight is placed on one end of a board set over a pivot and in a groove on a split log that runs some 10 feet up to a bell with four differen’t colors brightly painted along the groove noting degrees of success. Contestants have 3 chances to accumulate the most points. 

Above 22: the bell flies off

DC 22: green section and dings the bell

10pts

DC18: yellow section

5 pts

DC15: orange section

3 pts

DC12: red section

1 pts

 Prize- 15gp

4. Lizard races: 35 ft track, players make nature, diplomacy, intimidation, or deception checks to get their lizard to move. 5ft on a success, 10 ft on a critical. Backwards 5 ft on fumble. 

Nature DC 12

Intimidation DC 15

Deception and diplomacy DC 18

Prize: 10gp

5. Archery contest: targets 50, 75, and100 ft away. 3 arrows each round, contestants take turns. Most pts wins.

50ft range:

Outer ring- AC 12, 1 pt

Middle ring- AC 14, 3 pts

Inner ring- AC 16, 5 pts

Bullseye- AC 18, 10 pts

75ft range:

Outer ring- AC 14, 1 pt

Middle ring- AC 16, 3 pts

Inner ring- AC 18, 5 pts

Bulls eye- AC 20, 10 pts

100ft range:

Outer ring- AC 16, 1 pt

Middle ring- AC 18, 3pts

Inner ring- AC 20, 5 pts

Bullseye- AC 22, 10 pts

NPCs participating have a +6 or +7 bonus

Prize- 25gp

6. Drinking game: Some lady's of the night at the local brothel are running a drinking game. You take a shot of their strongest alcohol from their belly button, use your mouth to grab a lemon slice from their mouth, and drop it in a bucket. Then you must succeed at a DC15 fortitude save or you get progressively more intoxicated. 3 failed saves and you're out. The most lemon slices in the bucket wins. 

Prize: a bottle of fine wine and free admission to the brothel

Social encounters: 

Commoner

Npc is hopeful of the union initially. Staunch supporter of andoran. After further insight pcs can learn that there's a contingent of small folk who have doubts about the cheliax kingdoms motives. 

Noble

Npc believes whole heartedly in the lord's strategy. Claims to have an in with many chelaxian nobles and this union is entirely on the up and up. A great win for andoran and a big leg up in the wars to come. Upon further investigation, this npc is full of shit and knows nothing. Is just a bootlicker and regurgitate's whatever support. 

Eagle knight

Npc is tight lipped at first. Requires some impressions and mentioning the small folk to get him to admit that there's been some Intel that suggests there may be something nefarious to the union. 

Excelsior Spellheart backstory

Excelsior Spellheart is a male human wizard. He grew up in absalom, the son of 2 powerful magic users. His magical ability came natural to him and he was a prodigy in every sense of the word. He was granted early acceptance into a magical college called the arcanamirium. It was there he made friends, honed his skills, and expanded his studies. He was an excellent student and had good relationships with all of his professors but he grew exceptionally fond of one in particular. His conjuration professor,  Esiar Daednu, was a beautiful woman, smart and a bit flirty, seemingly taking a liking to Excelsior as well. She would constantly praise his abilities, comment on what a natural he was, and fawn over what he could be capable of. Beaming with confidence from all the praise, and eager to please his favorite teacher, Excelsior would often do anything she suggested, or believe anything she said. A bit cocky and a bit immature, one day his naivety had led him down a dark path. Esiar had asked if he knew anything about necromancy and if he knew about the unfathomable power that lie in that taboo school of magic. He wasn't too keen on the idea of raising undead, but he enjoyed the idea of unlimited power and Esiar had an uncanny way of getting what she wanted. He willingly subjected himself to a ritual, conducted by Esiar, under the guise of academic pursuits, to further his knowledge quicker. However, the rituals true purpose was to control his mind and turn him into a thrall. Esiar, in reality, was no professor at all. She was a high standing member of a resurgent group of necromancers called The Whispering Way, tasked with infiltrating the college and mind controlling promising students to be thralls to raise undead minions to bolster the army of the infamous lich lord Tar-Baphon, the whispering tyrant. Excelsior was enthralled for about a year, learning powerful necromancy from Esiar and raising undead, until one day, Pharasma appeared to him in a dream. Her godly intervention was enough to break his mind free from the enthralling magic. When he awoke, his memories from the last year were hazy and unreliable, some memories missing completely. He was fully aware he was working with a group of necromancers to raise countless undead, but the how and why were a mystery. He was able to escape from the necromancers and venture out into the world, now a devout follower of Pharasma, sworn to destroy all undead,  grateful to her for her role in freeing his mind. He is slowly piecing his memories back together, as he makes his way back to the arcanamirium in absalom. 

d6. whistling throne goblin fight

Dont forget goblin scuttle.

Goblin war chanter: bless, goblin song

Courageous anthem, telekentic projectile

aroden

Above the table, you would all be familiar with a god named aroden, the god of humanity and the last azlanti and an event called earthfall.  Brodert is a big history buff so he goes into explaining this a bit deeper. He starts explaining all this in great detail. Over 10,000 years ago, the first great human empire,  the Azlanti empire, ruled over golarion for a couple thousand years, somehow learning to master magic and technology to the likes of which humanity has never known since. An azlanti man named Aroden was given the task of selecting the next emperor, by the then-emperor who was old and indecisive, and instead of choosing from one of the selected candidates,  Aroden kept the Azlanti Diamond for himself. Shortly after, a swarm of meteors, including the star stone,  descended upon golarion and devastated the planet. Earthfall. This marked the end of the azlanti empire, tidal waves and earthquakes consumed the land, and the land cracked and fissured in avistan creating the inner sea. For 1000 years the smoke and dust blotted out the sun. Aroden led the azlanti survivors east to avistan, and along the way, they say he somehow became immortal. He then went on many adventures, leading armies and crusades against demon lords in other planes. He eventually returned to golarion, dove into the inner sea, found the star stone at the bottom and rose it out from the water with the surrounding sea floor, founding the isle of kortos and the city of absalom, becoming a god in the process. Afterwards he became the most prominent god to all of humanity, however he disappeared from the world to continue his other planar adventures. He was prophesied to return at an exact time in an exact location and at the appointed hour, he did not return and instead golarion was racked with three weeks of storms and earthquakes that flooded the western coast of garund. To the north in sarkoris, the earth split open with the worldwound, a planar tear in the fabric between the material plane and the outer rift which poured forth hundreds of thousands of demons from the outer rift. Clerics of aroden found they could no longer reach their god, their divine mandates stripped from them. The last azlanti was dead and the prophesised age of glory has become the age of lost omens, where we currently reside. 

All that is to say that we knew about the azlanti empire, piecing together fragments and relics of its history over time, although indeed, much was lost with earthfall. It wasn't until nualias descent into evil and the chain of events that followed, did we discover that the azlants weren't the only empire destroyed by earthfall. Long before earthfall there was a group of Azlanti exiles fled to varisia and formed a second empire, the thassilonian empire. 

dooms recap #3

Our heroes began in the tunnels under the boneyard as they continued exploring the thassilonian complex. You found a stone alter with 5 stone plinth behind a secret door in a scorched wall and had a harrowing fight with some fire skeletons. You found a tunnel that was collapsed to the west, an ancient map and ancient scrolls and notebook, you explored an armory and found 2 striking runes and magical weapons, and you found 7 garnet beads that seemed to be the answer to the door puzzle. As you were leaving the tunnels.you found a secret tunnel.that led to a ghast named wolgur wrabs and a clan of a dozen ghouls. He was very cordial and you all made an agreement to allow them to continue operating the way they were as long as they left the living alone, didnt get too close to the cathedral and warned you of any more action by ripnugget. You came back up and met a rude alchemist name aliver the pillbug. You went to the pixies kitten. 

brodert quink

As you approach broderts house you see the remains of the old light, an ancient lighthouse built into the side of the cliff that overlooks the varisian gulf, that has been reduced to ruins. The remaining stone structure still stands roughly 50ft up. But you get the sense that when it functioned it was massive and rose probably another 120ft

Across the street You also see an old man with thick round glasses, a thick white beard, thick white eyebrows, and white hair along the sides and back,  bald on top tending to a small garden. 

He sees you all looking at the old light.

Impressive isn't it? The old light. If that was truly its purpose. 

Brodert quink is the name. Most people believe the old light was a lighthouse, and it does appear to be just that. On the surface. However my research into ancient thassilon has led me to believe that it was more than that, an ancient weapon of unfathomable power perhaps, but that's merely a hypothesis that would require more empirical evidence you see. 

My name is brodert quink and I've assembled a group of researchers and truth seekers here in town called the rune watchers. Ever since the the rise of runelord karzoug and the discovery of the ancient thassilonian empire some time ago, our little town has been a hotbed for adventurers seeking ruins and ancient artifacts of  thassilon. 

You see, I am a scholar of varisian history and engineering. I spent 2 decades of my youth studying with Dwarven engineers at janderhoff and 3 decades as a cataloger at the founders archive in magnimar. 

You see, long before the common era.... 

Thassilon was founded by the benevolent emperor Xin, who first harnessed the power of rune magic. Xin was exiled by the mystics who ruled the nation of Azlant for promoting the belief that the Azlanti could learn something from and should cooperate with the other races of Golarion. He and his followers left the distant continent and traveled to northwestern Avistan to establish a new nation in the area now known as Varisia. In doing so, they brought advanced civilization to the people who lived there, known today as the Shoanti and the Varisians. Though exact dates from the Age of Legend are hard to gauge exactly, it is believed that Xin began the formation of the Thassilonian empire around -6530 AR. As the size of his nation grew, Xin divided Thassilon into seven fiefdoms and entrusted his advisors to rule them in his stead. Each of them specialized in a different school of magic, and was guided by one of the Azlanti seven virtues of rule; generosity, zeal, charity, love, humility,  kindness, and temperance,  they became known as the runelords. As Xin's personal influence over the nation waned, his ideals were also pushed to the wayside, making way for the villainy of the sinful runelords, who gained even more power than Xin, by embracing the very sins they sought to eradicate. Karzoug turned generosity to greed. Krune turned zeal to sloth. Belimarius turned charity to envy. Sorshen turned love to lust. Xanderghul turned humility to pride. Alaznist turned kindness to wrath. And zutha turned temperance to gluttony. 

You pull out the map you found and he starts studying it meticulously. He grabs a couple books and starts cross referencing notes he's made in the books with the map. He says "hm, interesting. Very interesting indeed. You see right here, the coast line on this map is much farther out than it is now. This map is most assuredly pre earthfall. You see this label here says "the rasp"  and where we are, here in sandpoint, here's a label that says Hellstorm Flume compound, hellstorm flume, I remember reading that somewhere and he starts thumbing through books and pages and voila 

After some time and checks he tells you that it appeared the seven runelords were constantly at odds, particularly alaznist and karzoug. Karzoug had built sentinels, enormously huge statues that he could then see through their eyes to keep watch of alaznists nation of bakrakhan. Alaznist had built the hellstorm flume, towers that could launch devastating fireballs great distances to keep karzougs forces at bay. The old light was never a lighthouse, the old light is what's left of the collapsed hellstorm flume. And look here on this map you found there's mention of karzougs nation of shalast, right here where the pit is now. Its circled with a note that says "captured spies whisper of a sizable Shalast cohort stationed here, led by someone names Liralarue-- must secure authorization from mistress for a raid" 

Liralarue; has this name come up in anything else you've found?