EPTThe party decides that it's best to return to the legions and not continue due to their extreme injuries. Several party members have large amounts of CON damage( Zero CON means dead) thanks to the spiders poison ( Sumer 7 CON damage, Arim 8 CON damage, Linnor 4 con damage). They make it safely back to camp.
Upon arrival the party IMMEDIATELY buys several antivenoms and other necessary supplies. The party meets the commander once again and with the assistance of ghost image (thanks to Puk) is able to show what exactly they came across. Commander Risan and High-Arm of the Gravekeeper Witlock (Gravekeeper is the worshiped god of death) inform the party some troubling news. With the appearance of the phase spider, is it possible that the Gravekeeper has taken interest in the war?. And if so whose side is he on?
The next little bit the party spends roleplaying with the other soldiers. Linnor the bard plays music for a company of men around a bonfire. A soldier approaches him and identifies himself as a member of the 37th. The 37th recently lost a man and would like Linnor to play the fallen soldiers fiddle. Linnor agrees and prepares to play the fiddle for the 37th now standing around him. I ask for a perform check and..he botches. He rolls a natural 1, as soon as he attempts to play a string snapped.
In this realm the snapping of the string can be found as a bad omen. That the fallen's spirit is not at rest or went to someplace worse. All is silent until Raul (our cleric) appears and uses Mend to magically repair the broken string. Linnor then plays his heart out and at least puts the 37th at ease once again.
From there Sumer (our Paladin captain) returns to his tent and is visited by the Quartermaster Donaldson. The party is given a fresh batch of writing equipment (for the mages), a bundle of Bolts +1, and several other supplies.
Puk (our gnome wizard) and Miro (our halfling sorcerer) are eating dinner next to a bonfire surrounded by other squads. They see a group of dirty soldiers, armor not polished, looking generally like a mess - approach the fire and drop something very large into the fire. They are invited to join the group, now identified as the 'mudblokes'. They join and are offered dinner. Miro accepts, Puk says no and leaves. the mudblokes reveal however that what they are cooking is a large spider - The same spider the party slayed a day or two back. Miro always wanting to try new things - eagerly accepts the spider meat and good times are had for all.
The next morning comes and the party leaves the camp, healed via the legion medics. Fully equipped and rested, the party heads back to their task. To find the manor that the bounded ones are using and destroy their strongpoint there. The journey goes easily, nothing attacks in the night and the road is clear. They arrive with the manor now in the distance.
Arim (our halfling rogue) does some initial scouting, only one entrance seems viable - that is the main entrance. Walls surround the compound and no breaches can be found. They actually find that any breaches in the wall hav been recently repaired. They see no activity at all.
Arim attempts to scale the wall but is greeted by something special. Having numerous days to fully prepare for an attack they knew would come, the bounded ones had used the Alarm spell on all the walls. Arim trips one and when she reaches the top she's greeted immediately by several archers from the manor's second floor. She takes an arrow to the arm and scampers off in retreat.
She informs the party what happened and this is when something happens. The party plans. And plans. And plans. I don't know how but my players are always capable of planning forever and coming up with nothing. They decide to try to lure them out - Sumer stands in the middle of the road about one-hundred yards from the gate entrance. Weapons drawn and slowly approaches the manor while the party waits in ambush when the enemy sends a force out to get Sumer.
Now what is the enemy to do? Send out a group of hobgoblins to capture the lone attacker? No. The mage leader walks to the windows, opens the curtain and shoots a fireball at Sumer's face. They are playing hardball.
Encased in flame Sumer rolls around and snuffs the fire out, the party quickly regroups. They realize "Ok, maybe that won't work". The party then continues to plan. And Plan. And Plan. Five minutes later Sumer states and I'm not bullshitting you "Ok how about one of us does a distraction or something and lures the enemy out?". The party stares at him blankly "DO YOU NOT REMEMBER THE FIREBALL THAT JUST FUCKING HIT YOU IN THE FACE."
After a lot of suggestions that were all terrible - the party decides on a course of action. Linnor would cast a silent image on one side of the compound to distract the enemy (using the silent image to create fakes of us climbing the walls) - meanwhile the party would storm the main gate.
Linnor casts his spell and runs back to the front - the party charges at the main entrance. Once nearing the front - the door slams open and a group of hobgoblins and ogre come out ready for battle. The party had planned to get through the gate and find cover within the inner grounds (cover is available on the right of the entrance). At the gate, Raul casts Obscuring Mists (creates a fog that blocks all visions in an area) and centers it around the main gate. The party use this as cover and enter the main compound under fire by arrows and javelins. As a note because of the distraction the mage was busy and was not at the front entrance during the assault.
However, upon passing the main gate the party realizes that the enemy was more prepared. Stepping through the gate - the path to the front door is strewn with rubble, mud and now a deep fog. Hidden within the mud and rubble are caltrops. Caltrops are spikey objects used to cause severe damage to enemy movement. So under fire by arrows and javelins, caltrops piercing their boots and hobgoblins charging into their ranks the attack was not going well.
The attack also fell apart when the party stopped following the plan. Sumer ran off for the ogre immediately and left the party alone. What followed was a close fight of hobgoblins vs the party. The party wins out and the inner grounds look to be won. Sumer meanwhile chasing the ogre - now fleeing back inside the manor. Knowing he was stepping into a trap, Sumer ran inside anyways and was immediately shot by arrows and triggered several fire traps. Somehow not being scratched by anything, he catches up to the ogre in the main hall and slays it. Linnor and Raul charge in behind him hopefully to pull him back so the party could regroup.
A female figure appears atop the stairs and sends a fireball right at the three immediately. Linnor drops to four HP, Sumer makes it fine but Raul drops to -8 HP. Raul immediately falls unconscious and the party is forced to drag his body from the chaos in the main hall. The party regroups outside the entrance and heals back up. The session ends here.
The party is now within enemy territory (although they have won the inner grounds), their spells and healing capabilities are greatly diminished. And now they have to somehow make it through the gauntlet that is the main hall, kill the remaining hobgoblins and monsters and then after all that somehow defeat a mage who has had several days of preparation.
As for following what I had planned for the session it went pretty well. This was an enemy fortification who had several days to prepare and so they did. The walls were a killzone - designed to force the players to only go through the front door. If they attempted to scale the walls they would have been shot to pieces by arrows and spells. The charge through the gate was not expected in the way it did. I did not expect a player to charge solo into the manor (it was something so suicidal to even think of), somehow though Sumer pulled through and survived. At the beginning the party roleplaying with the legion went really well, I was glad I was able to get the party to flesh out the world a little.
For those interested the recording of this session can be found here: Pathfinder - Session 7
Me and my group stream our Pathfinder game every Wednesday, Shadowrun on Fridays, and Dungeons & Dragons Fourth edition on Sundays
