Scion: Requiem for the Fallen Cities, Session 3

 After speaking with Keegan, the troupe calls it a night and the next morning gets in touch with Francesca "Frankie" Gutierrez at her restaurant. She's adamant that Keegan is responsible for Ben's death, but the band had already spoken to him, and they didn't feel like Keegan was the one that did it. The also were told that Jessica was living with Ben and decided to follow up with her after they ended their meeting with Frankie.

The band didn't have any luck getting Jessica to return their calls, so they reached out to Elena to see if she could help and Connal decided to consult his raven, which only said "Battlestar Galactica". This led nowhere, but Elena called them back and let the band know that Jessica was in a nearby Starbucks. This led to many groans. They spoke to Jessica briefly in the cafe. She was clearly distraught and seemed genuine in her care for Ben, explaining that he took her in off the streets and was like a father figure to her. 

Jessica suggested they walk to a nearby park and talk further, where she revealed she had seen Ben get killed by a large metal mummy-looking thing. She had brought him a scroll that he said was for summoning something and when the thing appeared, she grabbed the scroll and Ben's journal and took off. Inspection of the scroll turned up no magic associated with the thing, and it was actually a ritual that would allow "separation of self". Jessica also revealed to the heroes that one of the reasons Ben took her in was that she was a Scion of the Titan, Aten, and he knew the others in his band wouldn't stand for one of their "enemies" living among them.

As she talks to them, an explosion of light occurs nearby and there stands the 12' tall creature she had described to them. At the same time, some of the sand creatures from before also coalesce and a single corpse-looking humanoid with terrible burns all over its body. Arne and Yrsa begin to pick off the smaller guys from range while Cahir and Connal engage in hand to hand with the large statue thing. Realizing that most of the baddies are moving toward Jessica, Alex gets her motivated to run for Cahir's men at their van. 

A knockdown drag-out fight occurs, and everyone (except Alex) takes some licks. Cahir's men begin to fire on the sand things when they get close behind Alex and Jessica, and they take Jessica into the van while Alex peels off toward Cahir's Relic car. Imbuing a point of Legend into it and coaxing its spirit to do what he needs, the car roars to life and Alex steers it right toward the construct, crashing onto it and doing enough to finish the thing off. 

Elena arrives on the scene ahead of the rest of LVPD and tells the Band that they need to get out of there and she'll smooth everything over with a cover story that she's gotten from witnesses. Everyone picks up what she's putting down and though Cahir has to leave his car, they all get out of there, which is where we left off for the night.

Cast of Characters
Alex Saito, Heroic Scion of Tsukiyomi - Taylor
Arne Berg, Heroic Scion of Skadi - David
Cahir MacMannus, Heroic Scion of The Morrigan - Chris
Connal MacMannus, Heroic Scion of The Morrigan - Jon
Yrsa Vinter Strand, Heroic Scion of Skadi - Sam

Notes
• This combat ran loooong. I'm not sure what's causing us so many problems when it comes to smooth combat in this system, but we've not hit our stride yet. Other rolling periods seem smoother, but Storypath seems clunky to us. It's really bugging me, because the group are WoD/Storyteller vets.
• I condensed the story once they hit on Jessica. I had a lot more prepared, but I didn't feel a need to drag it out further. They will have time to explore some other parts of it once they dig into Ben's journal some and talk with Jessica more.
• I was expecting the group to be at Legend 2 at the end of this session. I might need to step up the opportunities for them to accomplish deeds. Yet another growing pain with the new system.

A Little Jaunt to Khardtha

 This week, Angela was unable to attend and run her Emerald Spire campaign, so I took the reins and had everyone roll up first level Pathfinder 1e characters while I looked for a published adventure to run. I settled on Patrick Wetmore's Anomalous Subsurface Environment; the party was created and off we went.

I decided on a whim to set the game in my own campaign setting and had our adventurers start in the town of Marstad, close to the western border of Gyr. An entrance to an underground complex had recently opened on the side of a nearby hill and the local government had hastily erected a gate over the opening and posted guards in the event that anything came out. A local mining interest and several members of local government were offering coin to those who explored, and a ragtag group was assembled for the mission.

Spoilers ahead for Anomalous Subsurface Environment!

The group were surprised to find that a long flight of stairs led down from the entrance and the structure was relatively clean and in good repair when they got to the base of the stairs. They first entered a room to their right which contained the skeletonized remains of a humanoid with scraps of clothing and bits of paper. One of the sheets of paper had a note saying they had been trapped in this complex and were being fired upon when trying to escape. The adventurers pocketed the note and moved on.

The group then went down a hall opposite the room they had just checked and came into a large hall almost knee deep with bones with a few passageways leading off and what appeared to be a large stone sarcophagus lying open at the far end. They first check a room on their right which is empty and mark the door leading out of the other side of it for further exploration and backtrack into the bone hall, moving toward the sarcophagus. Suddenly, a screech like a woman's scream erupts from a passage ahead of them and they rush in, fortunately holding the incoming albino humanoids in a chokepoint where they're able to hold their own long enough to force their aggressors back. The explorer's abandon this direction, not wanting to walk into what could be a trap and go back to the large hall. There, they finally make it to the sarcophagus and find it empty. Several small alcoves lie above it on the wall, but nothing can be gleaned, and it is marked for further experiments later if something can be found to fit in the alcoves.

Going back to the empty room from earlier, they move past the door on the opposite side and check another room, which seems to have rusty and dry rotted tools, then onto a room with a clump of lichen covering what appeared to be a complete humanoid skeleton, but below the fungus was only the hips and legs of a skeleton composed of tarnished silver! How the lichen mimicked the shape of the torso, head, and arms was a puzzlement, but a switch on the wall was manipulated by Malar and found to turn on an overhead light and open a secret door when pushed in. Another secret door was found at the end of a short hall and progress was made into a small empty room with a door leading out on the other side.

Traversing through the door and into a short hall brought them to an oddly pastoral scene. Four wooden statues of three-eyed gnomes with conical hats topped with large garnets sat in a circle in the middle of a large trapezoidal room. Woodland murals covered the walls and fake shrubs dotted the floor here and there. During inspection, one of the statues was touched and all four sprang to their feet and began to attack the party! The fight was hard, and the wooden warriors hit hard, but in the end the heroes prevailed and decided to head topside to report their findings and come back more prepared. 

We called it there and may pick this back up if we have another Friday night where the group is short a player.

Cast of Characters
Malar Harken, Human Unchained Rogue 1 - David
Brunus Kegstand, Dwarf Barbarian 1 - James
RiRun, Catfolk Fighter 1 - Sam
Jobin Goldbloom, Halfling Sorcerer 1 - Taylor

Notes
• I didn't incorporate much of the setting into the game, as we wanted to get going fairly quickly. If we play it again, I'll be able to put more effort into expanding what the nation of Gyr is like, etc.
• I was converting ASE as I went and probably erred on the easier side when it came to monster stats. I wanted the players to have fun and feel like heroes. My goal wasn't to TPK, even though the wood golems could have easily done that without me boosting them any more.

The Lady of Fraying Flesh

Astien sheds her wings.
Art by Carlos Quevedo on DeviantArt

 

Once among the best and most beautiful of the Heavenly Host, the sin of wrath consumed the angel Astien's mind while in dogged pursuit of a fiend which evaded her at every step, leaving a trail of mutilated minds and bodies for her to follow. Eventually, the angel turned to cruelty and torture, herself, in order to root out her enemy once and for all. She reveled in leaving behind the flayed remains of her enemy's cultists or anyone else she felt might hold the information she sought.

Wind of her transgressions reached the rest of the Host and her superiors delved deep, hoping to aid their companion and bring her back to the right path. Their investigations led them to find that Astien had caught her quarry hundreds of years ago and put the fiend to the sword but hadn't stalled her great crusade or lust for flaying anyone she deemed disrespectful or unhelpful. Her brethren appealed to their superiors, who decided their only recourse was to cast her down. Her depravity was so great that her fall only created a powerful erinyes lord, The Lady of Fraying Flesh.

The Lady of Fraying Flesh was once radiantly beautiful, but now her skin peels back in random places as if flayed from her body, appearing to be streamers or ribbons flowing from her clothing. In place of her wings, frayed graying ribbons of flesh hang from her shoulders though this doesn't hinder her flight. A ring of razor-sharp blades circles her that she may use if she wishes to attack.

Her court is filled with all manner of grotesque beings that have a penchant for flaying and mutilating. Grand spectacles of torture entertain her guests as they feast on the flesh of sentient creatures and each other. Those devoted to The Lady often self-mutilate in supplication to her and take particular joy in torturing other living things. Often, they may be granted with boons from their mistress that can include painful auras or having their mere touch flay their victims.

Suggested Rules: The Lady of Fraying Flesh is an 18 hit die Erinyes Devil. The blades surrounding her create an effect similar to the Blade Barrier spell as cast by an 18th level caster within a 5' radius around her. She doesn't carry the usual weapons of an erinyes, instead using her blades in combat to fight both up close and at range. Each blade deals damage as a longsword plus the Lady's Charisma bonus. If the blade deals damage, the target must make a Fortitude save DC 19 plus the Lady's Charisma bonus or be wracked with pain as their skin peels back, causing d6 bleed and making the target staggered. A successful save negates both the bleed and staggered condition.

Notes
•The Lady of Fraying Flesh is a powerful fiend from my own Khardtha setting.
•When creating anything for Khardtha, unless specifically stated otherwise, assume Pathfinder 1st Edition rules. If you don't use Pathfinder and want to use something you see on the blog, feel free to reach out and I'll help you convert it.