Somebody Get The Goat

The party patiently waited for the patrol to show up to deliver the goat.  Billy and Kushi had hidden the signs of the battle outside the mill, while Zadora and Max moved the peryton caracas into the mill.  The next afternoon, the patrol wanders into the mill oblivious to the fact that the the peryton isn't moving.  The party springs the trap and makes quick work of the first three gnolls. The goat runs out the door as the fourth gnoll starts to flee, but Kushi cuts him down.  Max yells, "Get the goat.".  Billy makes a spectacular head shot and drops the goat.  Billy gets odd looks from the party, but he shrugs his shoulders, "I got the goat."

Waiting for another patrol to ambush, the party watches a group of gnolls lead a prisoner out into the pesh fields.  The gnolls push him down to his knees, and begin to beat the ground with a large staff.  While the gnolls are waiting, the party sneaks up and charges the gnolls from behind.  This group of gnolls put up a better fight, but still succumb to the battle-hardened warriors of the Little Rascals.

The rescued prisoner introduces himself as Oxvard of the Lions of Senara.  His group of explorers are from the distant land of Cheliax.  Most of his group has been murdered by the gnolls.  But one of their group, Felliped may yet be alive.  He had escaped two nights ago, but Oxvard believes that he is hiding in one of the ruined buildings in Kelmarane.  The party returns to the monastery with Oxvard and the goat.

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Session Characters:  Kushi, Zadora, Max, Billy
Session XP:  800 XP each.
Session Loot:  8 spears, 8 longbows, 150 arrows, 8 medium leather armor suits, 8 heavy wooden shields, 26 GP, one dead goat.

Bird is the Word

The morning started out with one of Almah's guards yelling, "Intruder!".  A pugwampi had returned to the monastery shrieking and babbling.  It ran past the guard and went straight for the courtyard.  Hiding in the shrubs, the pugwampi starts digging around.  When the party finds brings force to bear, a giant vulture swoops in and attacks the party.  The party struggles until the pugwampi received the beat down it deserved.  The geier, distraught over the pillaging of its nest, fought viciously on until the end.  The old caravan priest 

The party decided to makes a venture into the pesh fields when a dust digger pops up and attacks the group.  Billy shakes his head and mutters something about noisy friends.  The dust digger slams a few party members, but eventually grabs Luce.  Billy gets several rounds off, but it is Kushi who deals the death blow and says, "Do I have to do everything around here."  Luce scrapes of the pungent saliva.

Approaching the long edges of Kellmarne, the party works their way back to the mill.  Sneaking up to the building, Billy is spotted by the peryton inside.  Always the hair trigger, Billy's shot informs the party of trouble ahead.  The bird-deer-hybrid monster pummels the party.  Billy looks longingly into his nigh empty ammo horn, as Kushi finishes off the beast.  The party sets up watch, and waits until the next goat delivery to ambush the gnolls.  In the mill the party finds a magical sword and a ring in the peryton nest.

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Session Members:  Lars, Luce, Kushi, Billy
Session XP:  834 XP each.
Session Loot:  +1 longsword, ring of jumping

Game Update: Character Advancement

Zhadora, Miracle Max, Alwin, and Hoppin Jon have advanced to the second (2nd) level.

Game Update: Campaign Modification

While GMing the Savage Tide, the rule for giving XP to absent characters was 50%.  This kept characters with 2-3 levels of the leaders, and kept the party from falling out of sync.  But there were moments where the party, as a whole, was too low level to have access to certain abilities that would have helped in critical areas.  Things were painfully difficult in certain moments in the Savage Tide campaign.

I am going to modify the absent character award to 75%, which should keep all the party members within 1-2 levels of the leaders throughout the campaign.

Since the Little Rascals are on the Medium Advancement track, I will have to add enough side adventures to keep the party at level.  The situation will probably need tweaking through the six adventure path books, but I should have sufficient resources to keep the game going at good pace.  I am hoping that the medium track allows for a longer time enjoying the 'sweet spot' of levels 5-12, and allows enough diversions to entertain everyone's character development.

Of course, this is a cooperative enterprise and I leave this open for all to discuss.

Sitting Here In Almah's Town, or Who Let The Frogs Out

Coming in from his watch, Billy drags in a giant frog and announces "Look what I caught".  The frog is actually a grippli, and Lars informs Billy that he can't eat it.  When the grippli regains consciousness, Billy apologizes for shooting him.  The grippli introduces himself as Hoppin' Jon, and he was traveling to Katapesh when slavers overtook his caravan.  Jon fled into the wilderness to escape.  Almah, growing more accustom to the variety of non-humans in her crew, invites Jon to stay with her caravan.  Jon is even eager to help strike a blow to the slaving gnolls, and help retake Kelmarane.

The first night in the Old Monastery, around midnight, an impossibly loud yelping howl bellows out from Kelmarane.  A moment later, a faint but similar howl answers in the direction from the distant Pale Mountain.  Dashki tells the party that the howls are a form of long distance communication between gnoll tribles.  In this case, it is the Carrion King the ruler of the Kulldis tribe in Kelmarane and agent of the gnoll monarch in an unknown base on Pale Mountain.

The party sneaks up to the village, traveling by the river.  After observing the patrol patters, and the apparent feeding of two large creatures hidden in town, the party decides to explore a bit. In the first house, Jon scouts out a massive boar that seems to be watching the southern road.  Backing off, the party skirts around the eastern side and enters what appears to be the old slavers market.

Jon finds a big viper inside and draws Billy's attention.  Billy fires a shot to notify the party that there is trouble inside.  Converging inside the party finds two more vipers.  The vipers don't put up too much of a fight, but Jon is bitten and looks a little greener than usual.  There is no treasure in the old slave market, but tracks in the area indicate that the gnolls seem to avoid this building.  This makes it an excellent location for staging missions into Kelmarane.

The party returns to the Monastery so Jon can rest and recover from his bite wound.  Almah listens to the reports of each party member.  But Uncle Tolo has a curious look in his eye...

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Session Members:  Luce, Lars, Kushi, Billy, Jon.
Session XP:  320 XP each.
Session Loot:  one (1) grippli.

Game Update: Character Advancement, Payout

Kushi, Lars, Luce, and Billy the Squid have advanced to the second (2nd) level.  All players receive a payout of 350 GP.

The Temple of Woe is Me

A group of travelers arrive at the monastery, looking for the caravan.  A white-haired gentleman named Philler Tolo, his servant Armando, and two wild-eyed gnomes introduce themselves to Almah.  Philler Tolo, who prefers the name Uncle, is looking for help locating an associate who went missing in a recent uncovered temple ruin.  Uncle Tolo also asks the party recover a small white urn with a jackal's head.  The two gnomes, Karabunga and Karabella, are going along.  Uncle Tolo is paying 50 GP each and says keep any other treasure they find.

After a day travel, the party finds the abandoned camp next to a stone slab that has been overturned.  Underneath, sandy stairs go down into the earth.  After battling rats, more rats, a scorpion, and a ghoul, the party recovers the urn and a good bit of treasure.  The group returns to the monastery to a grateful Uncle Tolo, who suggests that the party return to explore the remaining areas of the fallen temple.

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Session Members:  Kushi, Lars, Luce, Billy, Karabella, Karabunga
Session XP:  750 XP each
Session Loot:  230 GP, 30 PP, masterwork morningstar, white urn with jackal's head.

Stirge is the Word, or Just Another Moldy Monday.

Continuing the exploration of the monastery, the crack team of adventures move into new areas.  In the open courtyard the party discovers 3 watermelon-sized eggs, and a mysterious buried weapon (a katana of unusual quality).

In the dormitory, the party battled a giant spider.  In the kitchen there were traces of pugwampi making off with food.  In the deanery, four baboons attacked the party.  In the library, the party found a book about geniekind.  In the shrine to the bearded guy, the party scrapes off 148 GP of gold off the walls (Billy insisted).   In the chapter house, three stirges attack the party.  Fortunately the party slays the foul creature before they do any severe damage.  Billy finds a secret door and disappears.  Luce turns him upside down, and shakes him until he shows the party the door ways and where it leads to a secret garden room.

Through the mold crusted doors the party descends into a laboratory next to the crypts.  The lab is full of alchemy stuff, and slime molds rise up and attack Billy and Kushi.  Kushi goes stiff for a bit, and has a bunch of visions.  Meanwhile the molds get a beat down.  Now Kushi is going around claiming the title of "Moldspeaker".  Weird.  

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Session Members:  Kushi, Lars, Luce, Billy
Session XP:  850 XP each.  Bonus +50 XP to Lars for Appraisal Mastery.
Session Loot:  43 GP in coins, chime of opening (4 charges), fine silver bowl (75 GP), alchemical papers (300 GP), book: Courts of Stone and Flame (300 GP), +1 mace, +1 dagger, masterwork leather armor, brooch of shielding, wooden symbol of Sarenrae on a silver necklace, 3 - Geier eggs (50 GP each), 148 GP of gold dust.