Pathfinder 1E - Prepping for Pathfinder: Kingmaker (spoilers!)

Our first session saw the following characters presented for play:
Dave - "Nowan Orlovski" - human Rogue, Nobleborn
Lee - "Brandis Evermine" - half-elf Ranger, Pioneer
Tim - "Asmodeus" - half-elf Alchemist, Brigand
Michael - "Kiera" - human Oracle (Life), Pioneer
Greg - "Wyven" - human Paladin, Sword Scion

The group reached Oleg's Trading Post, where they explained they were there to survey the land and kill the bandits. This gave Oleg mixed feelings: good to have someone dealing with the bandits that were making his life a misery, but not so good that it'd mean there'd be more people about; he wanted a few people to sell goods to, not a whole city's worth! Svetlana, his wife, was more happy about the news, and calmed him down.

Pharist 1, 4712: Ambushing the Bandits
The group thought Oleg's plan of ambushing the bandits when they came to collect the goods on the morrow was a good one, and they planned their attack... not much. They just set up on the battlemap in various positions to do the ambush from (not always the best, esp. with regard to Dave's character).

However, nothing could prepare us for the reality of the first combat: in the surprise round and the first round of full combat, none of the players rolled higher than a five! This gave the bandits an unexpected bonus as the players flubbed their rolls, and they were able to take Nowan down. I also had to explain to Lee how horrible the Heavy Crossbow is for a ranger - and quickly replaced it with a Longbow. Eventually the players started rolling higher, and they managed to defeat the bandit's leader; the two remaining bandits tried to flee, but were cut down.

Oleg and Svetlana returned from where they'd fled, and they congratulated the party on their success. The party took the horses that the bandits had left, selling three to Oleg (which took most of his remaining funds), and then rested for the night; they'd begin their exploration on the morrow. They also undertook to find Svetlana's wedding ring, which had been taken by the bandits.

Pharist 2nd-12th, 4712: First expedition
The group started their search to the north-west of Oleg's Trading Post, making their way through the plains, before entering the forests and swamps of the Narlmarches. Once in the forest, Wyven's horse almost stepped in a bear-trap, but Wyven was alert enough to avoid it. Nowan was then able to disarm it; although not immediately (and he got caught in it once himself!)

More bear-traps, carelessly scattered around the forest, were found by Brandis, who marked each in turn for Nowan and Asmodeus to disarm. However, Asmodeus brashly declared he'd find one himself - and he did, by stepping into one! Kiera was not that impressed as she healed both Asmodeus and Nowan.

(Why is Asmodeus called that? I don't know, but it wasn't the name his parents gave him!)

As the party headed south, they ran into Travon, a hunter who warned them about Breeg, a somewhat disturbed trapper who had set the bear traps they'd discovered. More traps were probably around, and Travon expressed his distaste for them: he preferred the clean kill of his bow and arrow. Travon knew Oleg and Svetlana, and was glad to hear that the group were dealing with the bandits: he'd seen them about, though he'd avoided them and didn't know where their camp was. The party bid him good day and continued their survey.

As it turned out, Breeg wasn't going to be a problem: a deadfall trap he'd been setting by the path of the Thorn River had fallen on him, trapping him and eventually killing him. His masterwork handaxe was in a treestump nearby, which Brandis recovered. Brandis also noticed a small grig nearby, named Xoan, who was very friendly to the group, especially after they started conversing with him in Sylvan. He revealed that "Perlivash" had been responsible for the trapper's death, but not who Perlivash might be.

It didn't take long for the group to find out who Perlivash was. While avoiding a giant centipede (some 25 feet long!), Brandis realised that his arrows were missing, having been replaced by sticks. Looking around, he noticed a Grig and a Faerie Dragon rolling with laughter in the air above (Brandis has a +10 Perception check, and Lee was rolling well for his Ranger).

Calling out a greeting - and bribing them with gold and fine wine, which Nowan, the noble outcast had with him - the group (and particularly Kiera) befriended the pair: Perlivash the faerie dragon and Tyg-Titter-Tut the grig. The pair returned Brandis' arrows, now wrapped in flowers, which Brandis took particular note to praise, and the fey were delighted to know that the group were hunting down the "mean biggenses". They were able to point the group in the right direction to find the bandit camp, and offered their help if the group needed it in the future (though not as adventuring partners - knowledge only!)

Now it was time for the group to engage the bandits, and, after Nowan scouted out the bandit camp, they approached it from two sides, but lost the element of surprise mainly due to how horrible Kiera and Wyven were at being stealthy!

This was fun: I was able to use the D&D Wilderness Tiles I'd acquired along with the many D&D Minis to represent this combat.

Once again, the group rolled fairly poorly in the beginning of the combat, but they recovered quickly. Tim also displayed how scary the Alchemist is - splash damage of 5 points from alchemist's fire wasn't quite enough to kill the bandits outright, but it hurt them dreadfully. One vial went haywire and landed off-target; luckily, it just splashed on a pair of bandits!

Wyven engaged the bandit leader - a woman wielding dual hand-axes - in combat, and his good AC (20) was able to protect him against most of the attacks. Some arrows hit our heroes, but Brandis was able to return fire and take out one of the look-outs. When Wyven finally slew Kressle, their leader, the remaining bandits surrendered or fled; the fleeing ones were shot down by Brandis.

Interrogating the remaining bandits, the party discovered the bandits were working for a powerful bandit called the Stag Lord who was greatly feared. However, the Stag Lord had become a drunk in recent months, and even more bad-tempered. The bandits revealed where his lair was. In answer to an inquiry as to the location of Svetlana's ring (which was not with their loot) they revealed that a group of mites had taken the ring - the mites lived under the Old Sycamore tree to the east.

However, that quest would have to wait for now. The group returned over the plains to Oleg's Trading Post, delivering the two bandits to borderland justice.

There, they discovered that the guards that Oleg had been waiting on had arrived, led by Kesten Garess, of the Garess noble family of Brevoy. He got on well with Nowan, and revealed that there was a rogue mercenary - Falgrim Sneed - probably working with the bandits that he wanted due to a past feud. If the party delivered Falgrim alive, he reward them with four masterwork weapons.

Another arrival at the trading post was Jhod Kavken, a cleric of Erastil who wanted to reclaim a lost temple of his god. He offered free healing to the group if they'd find the temple for him.

The party also took note of various quest notices posted on the trading post's notice board; in particular the bounty on dealing with the bandits, which they'd effectively already done. (A reward will arrive for them once the lords of Brevoy get around to it; probably on the 19th).

With that, I ended the session - we had about 20 minutes left, but it was a natural break-point in the adventure. Each of the PCs gained 1200 XP. I'm concerned that the XP may be a little too low, but we'll see how they deal with the upcoming encounters. I have been using random encounters - which yielded Travon, Xoan and the giant centipede.

We're really enjoying the adventure so far. I'm displaying the Map Folio poster map of where they're exploring, so they have a visual reference, whilst Tim is marking down what they find on the blank mapsheet.

The group doesn't have a proper wizard. Greg's already considering getting a cohort once he becomes eligible for Leadership. If the group really need one, I'm sure one of them will die and make up a replacement character that fits the bill!

We'll continue on with the game next week. Until then!

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