Dragon's Demand: First Session

Game Date: 1/25/2014
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: Dragon's Demand, Session 1
System: Pathfinder
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Erevel (Daniel) - Elf Rogue
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Ranger
Lilith (James) - Tiefling Paladin
Raz (Matt) - Human Sorcerer
Tanith Tularn (Thomas) - Human Cleric

The Session:
Our party had been hired as caravan guards for a trip through the forest.  The journey was going to take three to four weeks and we would pass through several towns.  The caravan was led by a trader named Silas Gribb. During the trip, Raz became chummy with him, but Erevel suspected he was shifty.

In the town of Belhaim, Silas was arrested.  Turns out he was a wanted smuggler.  Halfbeard was also detained, but eventually cleared of charges.  Finding ourselves in a strange town without jobs, we did as all adventurers do and headed for the inn.  As we schmoozed and drank, we suddenly felt the building shake as a plot hook exploded elsewhere in town.

We joined a crowd forming around a now-destroyed Witch's Tower.  An investigation was already underway, and several kobold corpses had been found in the rubble.  Suspicions arose around a local Wizard named Hunclay, who had previously made no secret about his hatred of the tower (it blocked his view), but alas the mage could not be reached for comment.  The door to his home was trapped, and he wouldn't answer our knocks.  Meanwhile, other party members discovered a trapdoor in the tower ruins.

Quest Cards

After a bit of running around looking for clues, we were given a proper quest by the Lady Origena Devy, Baroness of Belhaim.  We were promised 500 gold if we would investigate the dungeon under the ruined tower. This being one of the more organized campaigns I've experienced, we were handed quest cards to keep track of available tasks.  Looks like most of them involve making friends in town; good thing I have high Charisma.  But that's on the back burner for now, as we have a dungeon to explore. 

We climbed through the rubble and sent our Rogue down into a large chamber.  He was immediately attacked by a pair of giant centipedes.  They didn't have a lot of hit points, so the fight only lasted about a round.  Not being a great climber, Raz faceplanted descending a measly 15-foot drop, losing half her hitpoints.  We searched the room and found a key in an iron maiden.

Exploring the underground hallways, we found several empty cells and a secret door.  The iron key opened some of the cell doors, but we all we really found was bones.  As we approached one particular door, we heard a voice calling us.  A prisoner claimed it had been ages since he'd been fed.  Of that we had no doubt - it looked like it had been years since anyone had been in these halls.  But we were very skeptical that an ordinary prisoner could have survived this long.  Lilith detected that it was an evil presence.  We opened the door and prepared for a fight.

Instead of an immediate battle, we were deluged with visions of starvation and imprisonment, powerful enough to damage us.  Otherwise the room was empty, but we found a secret door on the far wall.  This door led to a very narrow hallway.  Once through the hallway, we found a machine.  A lever on the device caused a chain to move, disappearing into the wall.  The machine's function was not immediately obvious.

A lightning elemental appeared above the machine, so we spent the next couple of rounds in battle.  Lilith delivered the killing blow, and we continued trying to figure out the machine.  We left the room, this time watching the ceiling for signs of the device's chain.  We founds some pipes and followed them, but they disappeared into another wall.  At the end of another hallway, we found a torture room.

Amidst all the horrific torture devices, a raven perched on a chair.  He introduced himself as Harzogopas, and politely requested that we donate blood.  When we refused, he vanished.  While searching the room, we were attacked by the raven, now in the form of an invisible imp.  We struck a deal with the imp, agreeing not to attack each other.  Harzo really hit it off with the similarly-aligned Tennith, agreeing to serve the Cleric since his old master is long dead.

The imp pointed out a secret door, and we followed it to a river of acidic sludge.  Through experimentation and backtracking, we discovered that the machine we'd played with earlier controlled a platform over the sludge.  Unfortunately the platform didn't help enough.  Even if we walk to the end of the platform, there's still twenty feet of sludge we have to find a way to cross if we want to see the rest of the dungeon.  We sent the imp across and he confirmed that there is a door around the corner on the other side.  We ended the session there, so we'll start with that puzzle next week.

Afterthoughts:
I missed this.  It had been more than two months since I'd gotten to play, and I was having withdrawals.  Pathfinder seems pretty interesting, though it's definitely a lot harsher than I'm used to.