Saturday, September 25, 2010

Weekly Adventure Write-Up 1 - Smuggler's Shiv

Spoilers will be littered throughout this entry. You have been warned!

The only game currently running within my immediate circle of friends is my Pathfinder campaign running through the Serpent's Skull Adventure Path. This write-up will cover the first session. Our current cast of characters includes:

Bane - N Human Cleric of Pharasma (played by Tito)
Tzaira - CN Elf Witch (played by Captain Crimson)
Zstelian - CN Human Oracle (played by Eelface)
Ddal - LN Dwarf Fighter (played by Kitsukisama)

Two others still wait in the wings.

The Adventure Thus Far
The heroes found themselves on Smuggler's Shiv after being shipwrecked due to unknown circumstances. After some early conflicts involving poisonous crustaceans, they determined that someone had drugged the crew and caused the terrible accident. Our heroes, along with five other NPC castaways began to make their way across the island, headed toward the remenants of a previous civilization, home of the lighthouse that they hoped would lead to their rescue. Some miscellaneous encounters here and there sapped some of their resources, but they endured, finding numerous hauls from unlucky visitors from the past. As they traveled the coast, they came across two terrible discoveries. Some creature in the woods had been stalking them throughout the journey and leaving mangled animals as some sort of warning. One night, as they attempted to locate the creature, it made off with their NPC gnome companion, who ended up worse for wear, requiring Bane's skillful healing hand. They resolved to move on without delay, hoping to outpace the demon who had become fixated on the group.

The second discovery shed some light on their circumstances, as it seemed that one of the passengers had engineered this scenario for some purpose, possibly in collusion with the missing captain. Their resolve to track down these two individuals met with some opposition, as the path had become obscured by a nest of particularly deadly spiders. The group opted to circle around in the hopes of picking the trail back up at a later date.

This skirting led to the major encounter of the night, for which the party was somewhat ill-prepared and the GM a bit heavy-handed in his approach. The NPCs conveniently business (sneeze "quests") for the PCs to complete around the island as a means of forcing the PCs to explore the various corners of the Shiv. The most lucrative "business" by far was the rogue's desire to locate buried treasure. Since he would allow the PCs to take a cut, they agreed to help and once the location had been discovered, they uncovered the underground chamber containing the loot...and 4 Lacedons hoping to splish them across the walls. Given the make-up of the party, 1.5 melee combatants and spell support that would not work on the undead, life got pretty complicated quickly, particularly since my initial full attack splattered the fighter all over the room. What ensued was a clusterfuck of bad roles combined with strong hits against the party. However, I am not above allowing a deus ex every now and again, so after some divine intervention and a slight nod toward completing the quest, they mustered their resolve and continued to kill the lacedons and claim their treasure.

Initial Module Thoughts
It goes without saying that this module is quite fun. It represents my first foray into running published adventures, but I am having a great time each time I sit down. Part of the benefit to module and published campaigns is that I am able to address my two glaring weaknesses as a GM: continuity and pacing. Since the module lays out the scenario from start to finish, I can avoid going off onto moon-jumping tangents and alien invasions (true story). I am a bit taken back by the amount of awesome loot given to the PCs in the module. Without spoiling too much, my part already has some access to +1 weapons and crapload of potions. However, since the PCs are completely isolated and without any support, this approach makes a lot of sense.

I will continue this write-up throughout the next few months, and the next post should be up by the middle of next week. Until then, stay tuned.

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