Hello everyone! I find it easier to give smaller updates after each module as I can't keep up with individual session logs.
When I started up the campaign again after my son was born, we had about 8 months off. We finished up another campaign my friend was running, Curse of the Crimson Throne.
We began immediately after the constables became Knighted to get us back into the game. We tried (and failed) to run in Fate Core for a while but after a few sessions we gave up and went back to Pathfinder.
Amethyst was promoted to assistant chief inspector of the RHC and given leadership over the Obscurati Task Force. Kieran was promoted to Royal Technologist and he acquired Pembertons old laboratory in Pardwright University. I’Sheng was promoted to Royal Skyseer and was given the observatory in the Cloudwood which was rebuilt.
During the interim session before we kicked off Season 6, our knights investigated Cauldron Hill and arrested all of the Obscurati scientists and engineers there. They also took Linus, Hunting, and Colin and put them to work in Kieran’s lab. Lorcan Kell was publicly executed in front of the Theater of Scoundrels which was demolished soon afterwards. Amethyst stops more Obscurati activities in Flint and Patriotism is high in Risur. They’re not sure what to do with being celebrities.
Amethyst and Delft scout and recruit a new team of constables. They become the new B-Team.
They’re called into Delfts office on the 1st and are sent off to Slate and given the mission to go to Ber to retrieve Tinker Oddcog. They meet with Melissa Amerie and ask her about the article she wrote when they’re attacked by Rush. Glaucia arrives and Rush disappears into the Bleak Gate. (they hate it when they do that). Glaucis brings them to her Court and they begin the trial of Brakken. Amethyst does a great job defending him and he just gets a wrap upon his knuckles. Glaucia decided to join them to the Summer Court.
On Monument Road they’re set upon by a huge stampede and massive Tyrannosaurus’! Kieran is very excited by this. They manage to get Merton to escape and they themselves escape the Tyrannosaurus’.
They make it to the Summer Court and are greeted by an unhappy Bruse. He puts them into the adulthood challenge. They take an entire session just getting through the maze and are allowed to meet with the Bruse. He sends them and Lya’s team to do the two challenges. I’Sheng does a bit of espionage by turning himself into a small cat and overhears what Lya’s team is up too. They realize this might be too much to handle on their own and call in support from B-Team.
For Cavallo they did meet with him and his daughter Corta. They investigated the dragon worm and went to look for the “Risuri” who was taken in by the goblins. Not impressed to find Wolfgang captured, they just teleported all of them out of there. Wolfgang cures Cavallos grandson and the others of Dragon Worm. It was at this point the RHC B-Team showed up. The B-Team stays in Citaldo Cavallo to look for clues to this potential attack on Risur. They took the party's ship and went after a ship that set sail without permission and was attacked. They managed to take the commodore in and he was stripped of his rank by Cavallo.
Normally I don't like them missing out on plot but I've been telling them they have resources at their disposal and they don't have to do everything on their own. Also this was the point we switched back to Pathfinder.
First of all, they hated the train minigame. It was so incredibly dull that I just automated it for them with what was the most efficient for them and guided them to do things that are needed for it. They petitioned to work with Griento and also got a front on their stipend to get the steam-men from Pemberton. I particularly enjoy their interactions with Pemberton, I always knew what he would do in my mind but he always greeted Kieran with a thick southern drawl “Kieran my boy! How are ya?” and Kieran, who is ever the technologist would always talk to him about his inventions and Fanboy's out hard with the Steam-Men. Amethyst declared that Distilled Water with a celery stick was the greatest drink ever invented.
Melissa meets up with the party and wants to sponsor them and write stories about the Risuri Diplomats who’ve come to help Ber expand its infrastructure. They spoke in Renza, Ursalina, and Seobriga and they were able to earn 1 money in each city towards the train. They now have Populist Prestige as Melissa’s stories spread around the country and the world in her circles.
They easily rescued Griento and his people from the bandit attack and soon after fought off the Keepers of Cheshimox. That battle was tedious and kinda boring. One thing I noticed about Pathfinder is that there are way too many encounters where the enemies are too weak to be able to hit the party without rolling a Nat 20 but just strong enough to be able to take 2-3 hits before dropping. This encounter was one of those. From this point onward I turned anything that was too weak to matter in combat into a Minion. With the Gnoll Archers in the volcano they became minions, I increased their attack from +7 to +15 but dropped their HP from 41 to 1. With the Cultists i made them Troops and made them bunches of many Gnolls. They had 100HP and dealt 2d6+6 just being near them from many pointy spears.
They finished the Train Minigame (It was on autopilot) and was called back to the Summer Court. Kieran had a brief reunion with his brother Tinker before he decided to blow up the summer court. That was another challenging encounter with so many pieces. Bruse Shantus didn’t make it. As I’Sheng’s healing couldn't outpace the damage that Kenna was doing to him. They did some research on the duplicants and went back to Risur briefly to speak to HQ about what happened. It was there that Harkover Lee told them the true identity of Gradiax. Cue shocked expressions around the entire table. He told them about the Pact of Boyle and the history of dragons but kept his own history out of it.
Before they set sail towards the volcano lair, Amethyst tried to have a conversation with Lya Jierre and only really accomplished annoying her because her Geas stops her from talking to him about what’s really going on. She wants him to understand that what she’s doing will be better for the world in the long run but Amethyst has just been keeping a tally of everything bad the Obscurati have been doing that he knows about. She stormed off after she was unable to refute anything he said.
The volcano lair and the gnoll fights took the better part of a whole session and they rescued Kenna and the rest of the kidnapped people. Glaucia joined them and was nearly killed but she was healed. Glaucia looked after everyone while the party continued after Tinker.
They had one last conversation with Pemberton before the final fight kicked off. It almost never happened because Tinker's second line was mocking them and calling them fools for walking into a trap and Amethyst pulled the head off the train cart. The entire villainous monologue was almost ruined! But Kieran didn’t let him toss it over the cart.
They were pretty shocked to meet another live dragon down there. Lyas team was sneaking about the room avoiding combat and letting the RHC fight Tera and Tinker and not get involved. They nearly killed her and brought Tinker in his Steamsuit down to under 30hp. It was at this point that Pemberton told them to stand down or he’ll slit Tinkers throat. Amethyst says that he’ll Take care of Tera under the Pact of Boyle and put her under the protection of Risur. Lya stops Amethyst from entering the room and with tears in her eyes she tells him that she must do what she’s about to do. They duel 1v1 and Amethyst just barely wins while they constantly talk to each other between each swing. It was a pretty epic little duel. Lya agrees to cease all Obscurati activities. They take Tinker, all his schematics, the Eye of Yerev and anything else they can. Xambria, who has been hitching a ride with Kieran this whole time, asks him to take a fresh duplicant body so they could hopefully find a way to transfer her consciousness into it someday. She really hopes to be her own self again.
And that’s where we ended it! We’re going to have one session of decompression before we get right into the swing of Zeitgeist Season 7, Schism.
As usual, here's a link to our Campaign document to see all the notes my players have taken:
Campaign Document