Pathfinder: The Trio: A trio becomes a quartet (plus one)

Author’s note: Yep, I’m still doing this one. But this might be the last, I dont know.

The four adventurers followed the river upstream, slowly gaining elevation as they did so.

As the day waned, Goruza and Emerald allowed Star and Champ to graze, while Milah sent her wolf Ajax off into the woods to hunt, and Tamarie went to the river to catch some fish for supper.

After everyone had been fed, they began to look for a place to spend the night, and fortunately found an abandoned cave large enough for the four and their animals to fit inside.

While they prepared the cave, including Milah using her hunting skills to build a hunter’s blind at the entrance of the cave, Tamarie talked a little about being a Magus - being able to channel magic and fight like a warrior. She told the others that she had picked up a slow but painful disease fighting undead, and the temple priestess had saved her, which is why she was now working for the temple.

And then the four decided that they would all try and sleep, and trust the blind to keep any creatures from disturbing them.

The night passed uneventfully, and then the next morning the four continued to follow the river upstream towards their destination. For several hours, things remained mostly quiet. They had seen a large black bear at a distance, but the animal turned and lumbered away rather than confront the four of them.

The afternoon, however, was less quiet, as the four encountered a group of skeletons who came shambling out of an open crypt not far from the river. Fortunately, the skeletons were no match for the skills of the four, and soon all of them were dispatched without any of the adventurers taking any damage.

They then checked the crypt and made sure no other undead were inside, closed the crypt door and blocked it with some nearby stones and tree branches before leaving. Tamarie suggested that if they were successful in their mission, she would tell the priestesses of the temple about the crypt in the hope they could sanctify the crypt so no evil creature could reside there or use it to create more undead.

Once that had been accomplished, the four continued to go upstream, and as the afternoon passed into evening, they began to look for a convenient place to camp for the night. Eventually they found a small mound that they could use for the animals while they slept in the tent covered in a hunter’s blind in front of the entrance to the mound.

The next day, they had climbed high enough to need the cold weather clothing, and when they rested they put up the fur lined tent to help keep them warm. Emerald used one of the endure elements spells on the scroll to help the animals as well as themselves, but even still their progress slowed as they went further up. Despite this, at evening time as they were looking for a place to camp, Emerald looked at the map, and said, “We’ve done well. By tomorrow night, we should be at the site of the old temple.”

That cheered the others as they prepared the tent and created some cover for the animals. Then the four drew straws for the first watch, and Milah was chosen, so the others went to sleep.

The next day the four of them climbed steadily upward, and by evening they found the old temple of the war god. Deciding to not risk entering the place after dark, they found a broken down house that must have been for the priests back when the temple was in use, and decided it would serve for a safe place to stay overnight.

In the morning, they discovered they had been wise to wait till sunrise, as within the temple acting as guards were a couple of owlbear skeletons. The four engaged the monsters, and after a fierce fight in which all sustained injuries, they were able to dispatch the creatures, scattering their bones around the temple.

There was then nothing left to do but go down into the caverns and retrieve the sword, so they decided that Milah’s wolf Ajax would protect the two other animals while they went underground. But then when they opened the trap door to the caverns, they discovered that the entrance was wide enough and high enough that the animals could come with them, and they decided to take them along as far as they could.

As they began to cautiously explore the entry area, Tamarie told the others about the war god, and how he made a deal with a dwarf king, so the dwarves would do services for the god, like make armor, or weapons (including the sword they were looking for), or build places like this as a shelter for the war god’s priests.

Tamarie also told the others that the war god’s priests had fought against the sorcerer who had kidnapped Besh, and had suffered a terrible defeat. In order to save what few followers remained, the war god had appealed to the goddess for assistance, and traded the sword for her assistance with saving his followers.

Most of the entry area was empty, except right by the stairs heading down the four encountered four monitor lizards. Fortunately, they were able to defeat them without suffering any poison damage, and then they headed down the stairs to the next level.

Almost as soon as they came down to the next level, they were attacked by a swarm of cockroaches. They ended up killing a dozen of the creatures before the rest backed off and fled into the shadows around them.

As soon as the combat was over, Goruza began to glow, and she said, “I leveled up!”

The others congratulated her, and then they went back to exploring this level of the caverns.

However, their exploration was cut short by the sound of fighting, and they rushed to where the sounds were coming from.

There, they saw a dwarf cleric fighting a group of skeletons, and they rushed forward to help her out. It was a terrible battle, as they were outnumbered three to one, but with the help of the dwarf they were at last victorious, and afterward the dwarf introduced herself as Koroti, who was a priest of the war god Kratos.

“One of my kinsmen resented the deal Kratos made with Mitra, and stole the sword that represented their agreement, and brought it to this temple. Unfortunately, it appears that this temple has been abandoned and overrun, and he apparently has been killed. I vowed to return the sword to Mitra, but like him I had not anticipated such strong opposition. Without your help, I probably would have joined that pile of bones over there.”

“We have been sent by Mitra on the same mission, perhaps you would be willing to join us?” Tamarie asked.

“Well, I owe you, so sure.” Koroti replied.

Koroti proved to be immediately useful by finding a safe place for the animals to wait while they proceeded down to the next level (except Milah’s wolf Ajax, who stayed with the party), and while there the party took advantage of some secret dwarf passages to keep a group of greater orcs (otherwise known as orogs) from being able to effectively fight them. After the battle was over, Milah leveled up, and the party decided to have a rest before they would go down to the final level to face the troll in order to get the sword.

Koroti found a secret staircase down to the last level, and they decided to take that one instead of the regular one, in the hopes of surprising the troll.

They were successful, catching the monster off guard, and surrounded it and began to strike.

Goruza and Milah both took serious hits, and the creature’s ability to regenerate extended the battle, but eventually, Goruza separated its head from its body, and Koroti used a flask of acid on the remains to keep it from coming back.

Emmy and Koroti helped heal Goruza and Milah, and then the party went over to a room where the troll had obviously been sleeping, and found the sword.

They also found a large pile of gold coins that they split between them, and then with Koroti bearing the sword, they retraced their steps to pick up their animals, and then continued to climb until they were once again above the ground.

The journey back to Fiddler’s Vale took four days, but they encountered no evil creatures on the trip, and were able to go to the temple of Mitra, giving the sword to the high priestess.

As a reward, the priestess summoned the goddess, and she gave a boon to the party, leveling them up one level each.

She also told them that Besh was going to be freed “very soon”, and that if they wanted to wait, the temple would pay for their accommodations. She also offered them the chance to continue to work for her, with rewards equal to whatever risks they may take on her behalf.

The five of them all agreed, and were escorted to a good hotel by the high priestess.

As they enjoyed a supper together, they had each said that obviously the goddess had plans for them, and that night they each had dreams of becoming part of the legends ...

Of a town called Fiddler’s Vale ...

The End?