Tag Archives: RPGs

Twenty-sixth Session (8 page pdf) – “Black Dog’s Caves” – The haunting is thick in the sea caves used by infamous pirate Black Dog to hide his treasure.  Last time, the group fought Redlegs his first mate (now a dread allip); this time they face the ghost of Black Dog himself!  And huge chests of loot hang in the balance!  It’s the anniversary installment of our Pathfinder pirate campaign, Reavers on the Seas of Fate!

You know how in Ghostbusters, Egon describes the increase in ghost activity in Twinkie terms? “Well, let’s say this Twinkie represents the normal amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. Based on this morning’s sample, it would be a Twinkie… thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds.”  Well, it’s becoming clear to our heroes (and I use the term loosely) that they are in Big Twinkie territory.

I didn’t actually expect them to fight the ghost of Black Dog, and when they did, I didn’t really expect them to win, as he was like a twelfth level guy as a ghost… But they did!  Good on them.  They got a huge amount of loot out of it.  On the other hand, I knew exactly who was going to respond to Black Dog’s geas – “WHICH ONE OF YE WANTS TO BE A PIRATE THEY WILL SING SONGS ABOUT AFTER HE’S DEAD?!?” has Tommy Blacktoes written all over it.  They’re all violent psychopaths (well, maybe not Wogan) and Sindawe has emerged as the group’s leader, but Tommy is the one who is balls out on board with being a pirate.

Here’s Black Dog’s ghost courtesy of one of my Google image searches; I think it’s from one of the Monkey Island games or something.

I may have mentioned it before, but it is fascinating to me how Black Dog has emerged in my game.  In the Madness in Freeport adventure, these sea caves are referred to as “Black Dog’s caves” but it doesn’t go into that much.  But then, in the Pathfinder NPC Guide supplement, the pirate “Jaren the Jinx” has a backstory where his father was “the infamous pirate Black Dog.”  That tells me that fate is at work.  As a result, it let me foreshadow Black Dog via Jaren for months now, which gives his appearance more impact, and now his geas makes him an ongoing part of the game.  Woot DMing!

Then, Samaritha kisses Serpent!  And ghost bat swarms nearly kill him!  And tentacle monsters attack!  You know, a day in the life.

Finally they reach the Riddleport Light and head into it, only to be accosted by a five-headed hydra sporting a Tiamat color scheme.  More on the lighthouse next time…  Enjoy the session summary!

Twenty-fifth Session (8 page pdf) – “Return to Madness” – First, a bunch of goblins attacks our brave heroes’ genital regions.  Then, they sail back to Riddleport, where the re-dedication of the Riddleport Light is set to begin.  It’s into Black Dog’s caves and thence to the lighthouse!  But as you’d suspect, it’s not going to be that easy.  Thrill to this, the twenty-fifth session of our Pathfinder pirate campaign, Reavers on the Seas of Fate!

The “Junk-Kicker” tribe is from the Goodman Games/Wicked Fantasy Factory adventure Throwdown with the Arm-Ripper.  Strangely, in that adventure, they don’t actually kick anyone in the balls.  This is a significant oversight in my opinion, so I rectified it.  And a quick Google search for “goblins with big iron boots” got me this image I used for their chief, Krik Junk-Kick [pdf character sheet]:

His tribe surrounded the PCs like the natives surrounded Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark; then half of them shrieked fiercely and kicked the other half in the balls as a show of force.  This made a big impression on the PCs.  And their “junk-kicking” attack even has a simple in-game implementation, the new “Dirty Trick” maneuver from the new Advanced Player’s Guide!  Yay Pathfinder!

(Careful readers will note that I foreshadowed this with the story the two doppleganger “girls” told the PCs when they met them in the dungeon, that all the men of their village were too scared to fight the Junk-Kicker goblins so they had to go.)

You’d think 30 goblins would be a challenge, but I know my PCs.  Sure, they’re fourth level, but I had confidence that it would be a pretty easy fight.  The most dangerous part, really, was that one goblin tried to run off with Sindawe’s thrown magic spear during the battle.  Threaten their gear, that’ll get them motivated!  And this encounter threatened their gear in several different ways, if you get my meaning.

After that, they sailed back to Riddleport.  I did up some random encounters on the way there using some of the tables in the also-new GameMastery Guide, including the stranded “Heartbreak” Hinsin, who immediately started to compete with Jaren the Jinx for the favor of Hatshepsut.  She didn’t really groove on either one, but was more favorable towards Jaren.  Although there’s a little episode that didn’t get into the summary; Jaren and Hatshepsut went ashore in Roderick’s Cove and he put some moves on her and she didn’t like it; she went back to the ship upset and Sindawe tried to figure out what was wrong and comfort her, in his own somewhat clumsy way.

Then they get into Black Dog’s Caves!  More about that next time, but they fight a tojanida, which just about takes out Sindawe – Hatshepsut comes to his rescue and lifeguards him to shore – and then a dread allip comes for them.

It ended with them finding the fake treasure room.  The dialogue there isn’t made up; when Sindawe and Tommy scouted ahead and saw all those treasure chests, Sindawe immediately started shouting, “Don’t come in here!  We’re having gay sex!  Really gay sex!  We’ll be out in a while!”  Of course, that caused the rest of them to come running.

Next time – Reavers turns one year old!

Twenty-fourth Session (9 page pdf) – “Throwdown With the Arm-Ripper” – The party works their way through the ruined complex to an ancient druidic shrine, only to meet two of Jaren’s old friends – a witch and the Arm-Ripper!  Is Jaren’s missing arm a coincidence?  Hint: no!

We finished up with my randomly generated dungeon and kicked into Throwdown with the Arm-Ripper.  I have a soft spot for those Wicked Fantasy Factory adventures – they need work, but they shine in the setpieces.

Before that, they ran across a sleeping cave bear.  “We’ll sneak up on it and kill it,” they declared.  I took a look at the dire bear stats and shuddered.  Even with the sleeping perception penalty, there was a real good chance that with three PCs sneaking up, one of them would be heard, and if that thing woke up in close quarters with the three PCs, someone was going to get ripped to bits.  But they all snuck up successfully and all executed coup de graces.  The bear was tough, and it rolled TWO natural 20’s on its Fort saves – but luckily, it failed its third.

The interaction with Gilmy the ettin was entertaining.  They thought he was maybe some druidic guardian, and that his forehead scars were maybe lobotomy scars – they weren’t, they were a plot point, and he had been turned from a human into a mutated ettin by Mythra and the altar (also used the same way to make the Arm-Ripper).

And then it was The Big Fight.  A freaky altar!  An Arm-Ripper!  A witch (druid, really)!  A wolf!  The Arm-Ripper and Mythra weren’t all that hard per se, but the altar goes nuts when there’s violence and strong emotions going on and it kept affecting the environment, raising and/or animating dead foes, etc.

In the end, it resurrected Mythra but everyone else was dead and she didn’t have the starch to keep fighting.  She surrendered and helped them regrow Jaren’s arm and make the dragon helm (it’s probably for the best that they didn’t have to rely on their Knowledge skills).

So, mission successful!  Now it’s back to Riddleport for the grand finale of the first main plot arc.