My gaming group and I started a new campaign this weekend. We're using the Pathfinder rule system because there are some new gamers in the group and they've never played anything earlier than 3.5 so they aren't familiar with most of the earlier versions.
We actually began playing a few months ago with a 3.5 campaign and another DM but have since given up trying to hash together a decent set of house rules to fix things we hate about that version so when Pathfinder released, we all picked up the new book and went with it.
We have a pretty good group of player. All of them are very smart and for the most part just good, average, NORMAL people. No one has shown up in full wizards robes yet or wanted to play with black candles and drink a cup of goats blood to seal a pact or anything, so I'm really happy with the players we have.Our regular DM, Eric, is a police officer and his schedule is a little dynamic. He had to take a break for a few weeks so another person from the group, Dennis, offered to take over when Eric can't make it. I think we'll find up changing DMs quite a bit, which is nice because it will give everyone a chance to play and those that like to DM, myself included, will get to do that as well.
So anyways, Dennis decided to run Rise of the Runelords for us. It's a 6 module series starting the players off at 1st level. So we all made new characters. Here's a rundown of the party:
- Dennis - DM
- Brian (me) - Marcus Vanek - Human Rogue
- Patrick - Can't remember his name - Half-Orc Cleric
- Mario - Nessiel - Half-Elf Ranger (female)
- Avi - Keishouf - Gnome Sorcerer
- Cody - Ezekiel - Human Inquisitor
- Dennis' Wife Char - Hep - Human Summoner (female, of course)
Cody and Char are playing new character classes that are going to be released in an upcoming expansion, but Paizo released the early on their web site so players can try them out. So far the summoner looks pretty interesting.
So the party all starts out in a the town square of Sandpoint, a coastal city in the land of Varisia. Everything is going swimmingly as everyone stands around the Swallowtail Festival enjoying free food and entertainment from local artists. A hush falls over the throng as the head priest from the local church steps to a podium to deliver a speech. But something is amiss, as he begins to speak, a woman cries out, then another, and another. Everyone looks around in panic. Suddenly, we look up and see a goblin mounted on a giant rat-dog standing over the body of a poor pooch that happened to get in his way. 
We, being the adventurous sort, leap into action. I rush forward to engage the vile creature and his steed but I'm cut off before I can engage and get surrounded by more goblins. Nessiel strings her bow and fires at the mounted goblin but misses. Ezekiel, Keshouf, Hep and her summoned creature move to engage the goblins surrounding me and another goblin appear, a spell caster this time.We all wade into combat, spells are cast, swords are swung and arrows flung. I take damage from a goblin with a torch and another damages his fellow goblin with another torch. I have a feeling if I had just fought defensively, the goblins would have killed themselves. The cleric steps into to lend healing powers to the heroes for Sandpoint and we're able to vanquish our foes. Just as we are making introductions, we realize that the battle is far from over. The entire city is under attack and we hear more screams as more blasphemous goblins appear from the stalls of the marketplace.
Several have surrounded a wagon loaded with wood intended for a festival bonfire and have ignited it and are starting to push it towards something. Another mounted goblin has a town citizen cornered and another spell caster appears with her retinue. Nessiel launches more arrows, striking the mounted goblin but not killing him. Marcus moves to protect the trapped citizen with Ezekiel and miss sight of several goblins hiding under a market stall. We're cut off from the party. Hep sends her creature Scarab, named so because it looks like, well, a scarab, to help us and she moves to assist Nessiel with her long spear. Keshouf invokes his arcane powers and grease magically appears under some of the goblins, causing them to slip and fall to the ground. Ezekiel and I battle valiantly and down several beasts then move to stop the goblin spell caster. The cleric follows us to lend aid as he is able to and keep us safe and alive. Meanwhile, Scarab is having difficulty navigating the magical grease without slipping, so we have a little levity to break the tension of the battle.
Keshouf blasts two goblins with a Color Spray and knocks them unconscious. Ezekiel races to stop the two goblins pushing the flaming cart. He strikes one down and the other, in a decided lack of tactical planning, scurries under the burning cart to hide from his inquisitorial fury. Needless to say, his military career was cut short. Nessiel and I corner and finish the mounted goblin and his rat-dog and everyone mops up the remaining invaders.The battle ends soon after as the goblins are pushed back and make good their escape into the wilderness north of town.
Over the next couple of days we enjoy our new found status as heroes of Sandpoint. Our young Inquisitor meets a nice young lady...and his eye meets her father's fist. The ranger is approached by the citizen we saved to come stay with him at his estate outside of town for the weekend. I enjoy a substantial discount offered by a local arms merchant. and the rest of the party partakes of the free room and board offered by one of the many taverns in town.
The next day we band together, as adventurers are apt to do, and begin investigating how the goblins entered the city and why the attacked. A hysterical woman enters the tavern we are gathered in and tells us that her son was attacked in the night by a goblin that was hiding in his closet and her husband is trying to catch it. We race to the scene and find the man, head first in a hole in the closet floor, dead. A goblin is in the hole trying to pull the body in for food and we attack and subdue it. Ezekiel speaks with it in its native language and finds that a human is in league with the goblins and arranged for them to enter the city through the front gates. We accidentally kill the goblin when Ezekiel's sword slips out of his hand and into the goblin, 4 times.
A nocturnal trip to the cemetery to check on a lead turns up tracks leading to a wall in the north where a ladder was used to help the goblins escape. The following day we made a trip to the captain of the town militia to inquire as to how the goblins got through the front gates and find that it was left unlocked by someone within the city limits, but who? Soon after, a local goblin expert arrives back in town and gives us some good information about the local goblin tribes and their general locations.
The night ended with more questions than answers, but hopefully we'll track these
GZ
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