A Munchkin Birthday

So I had my birthday recently.  I started the day with lunch at a Korean barbeque place my son recommended--there's nothing quite like eating delicious food surrounded by non-stop Kpop videos on multiple widescreens. 

Back home, I was pleasantly surprised to find my amazing family bought me Munchkin Quest for a present.  Naturally, I insisted we play it immediately.

Munchkin quest is a board game-ish version (expansion?) for the Munchkin card game.  It adds a bunch of room tiles and connector (door/corridor) pieces, all of which are double sided.  They also have nice stand up monsters and little plastic munchkin tokens for the players.

The room tiles all have special characteristics which affect play and the connector pieces have colored directional markers which affect monster movement at the end of each player's turn.  Play is slower because there are a lot more things to adjudicate each turn but the core is the same as in the original card game.

The Academae Campaign: Capture of a Renegade & Death of a Doppleganger

 [Our travels, toils, and travails in the city of Korvosa continue on Roll 20.]

Sanjay peers into the back room of the butcher's workship and sees the main abbatoir, with vats, butchering racks, tables, etc.  [The map reveal works great here, as I finally see what is in the room.]  Also the renegade guardsman who fled is fiddling with a key at a door on the wall to his right.  Sanjay calls on him to stop or be set on fire like his fellows.  He considers that for a moment, then drops to his knees and surrenders, pleading that it wasn't his idea.  Axios and Slade rush upstairs in search of the renegade's leader, Vankaskerkin.  [Axios has a bit of trouble here with the teleport to the upstairs map.]  Upstairs, Vankaskerkin and Talla face off, armed.  Axios casts a spell magically weakening the renegade.  The guardsman suddenly becomes pale and slumps.  Ashe rushes upstairs to join them, as does Crow-Eye.  Talla advises him to drop his weapon.  Downstairs, Sanjay takes the key from the surrendered fellow and assures him that we are here for Vankaskerkin and if he is innocent he will not be harmed.

Vankaskerkin sees the game is up and drops his weapon.  Vankaskerkin asks if the guards sent us.  Axios says what guards?  Vankaskerkin says the royal castle guards.  He asks what happened downstairs, claiming he and his fellows were just selling meat here.  Talla points out Vankaskerkin and his fellow guards deserted their posts.  Vankaskerkin counters that a lot of guards went astray in the rioting.  Talla says he should come back to the castle.  Vankaskerkin agrees.  Crow-Eye and Ashe go investigate one of the other rooms off the main abbatoir room, finding a meat salting room.  After looking around a bit, they think some of the meat looks a bit odd--like, as in not any of the meats you'd typically find at the corner butcher shop.

Talla takes Vankaskerkin's weapons and leads him downstairs.  On the way, Talla glances into a side room upstairs and sees a silver dagger stabbed into papers on a desk.  She leaves the prisoner with Axios and enters to look closer.  It is a makeshift bedroom.  She notices the silver dagger is quite exquisite and examines it more closely.  Vankaskerkin tells Talla it is his, given to him by a friend.  Talla says it must not be very important if he's leaving it behind.  Vankaskerkin says it's not important if he's being arrested.  Talla points out that he is not being formally arrested because she is not a guard.  Vankaskerkin calls her a mercenary.  They go downstairs.

Ashe and Crow-Eye argue a bit over what exactly is the odd meat.  [We now encounter some problems with lighting vs. vision in some rooms.  We discuss how this may be due to how the rooms are outlined.  Dan notes that if would be better if  places we've visited should appear on the map, even if we can't see into them.  Kaiser says it should be like in the Diablo games where the map areas you've explored remain visible, but grayed out if you're not there.  Mike says you can have rooms be visible but put monsters on the GM layer and change their visibility when someone can see them.  Bill notes that he's working on some programming to make something like that happen.]  Ashe informs us that he's noticed something definitely odd about the meat.  Crow-Eye asks what sort of meat is in here.  The other captive impudently says it's just pig and cow.  Ashe tells him to eat some, but he refuses on the grounds that it's raw.  Ashe cuts off a chunk and waves it at him, trying to get him to eat some.  The fellow insists it wasn't his idea.  Sanjay demands he explain what's going on. He says it was Parn's idea.  The renegades did a couple jobs as hired muscle for various people, but Parns would bring back parts of their victims to sell as meat.  He notes that Parns is one of those burned to death earlier.  Sanjay is shocked.

As we prepare to leave, Talla asks our captives if anyone else is still here and they say not.  Crow-Eye impulsively decides to investigate another room off of the main abbatoir.  It is a long room, smelling of manure.  There are holding pens for animals with water troughs, including a large wild boar--no two wild boars!  The first boar panics and rushes Crow-Eye, but slips and slams into the wall.  The other boar then rushes Ashe, who has followed Crow-Eye, and gores him!  Talla shouts out to ask what's happening and Ashe shouts back "It's a pig!"  Talla shouts back at him "Well, deal with it!"  It now becomes apparent that there are at least two boars loose in the holding pen area.

Sanjay now ties up the surrendered guard to hand over to the authorities, based on his admission that he knew cannibalism was going on. 

Crow-Eye summons an earth elemental to fight the boar and backs out of the melee.  One boar attacks the elemental.  Ashe struggles to hit the other boar and calls for help.  Talla reluctantly heads in and sees the two enraged boars.  Sanjay's rope tying goes poorly and it all just falls off.  [We have a discussion about where the heck "Use Rope" skill went, then realize that was a 3.5 skill and did not port over to Pathfinder.  Mike looks around and finds that it is now Craft: Knotwork.  Never heard of it.] While the struggle continues in the pens, Axios asks Vankaskerkin how many boars there are.  Vankaskerkin has no idea and the two casually decide to just head back to the castle.   Ashe engages the boar again, cutting it a bit.  It fights back, injuring Ashe badly.  Talla leaps in, twin blades flashing.  The elemental kills one boar. 

Sanjay ties his captive up again--this time he's sure the ropes are well-tied--and pushes him along to join Axios. Slade, and Vankaskerkin in the hall.  (The porcine scuffle in the pens is quite beneath his dignity.)  Talla, Ashe, and Crow-Eye continue the battle with the remaining wild boar.  Talla maneuvers and double back-stabs it to gory death.

[Axios texts "Let's get some hands - never know when you'll meet llamas... "]

[DM Kirk swaps us over to the castle map--without warning which leaves us all concerned that maybe we all just got teleported to the Death Temple of Orcus or something.  With lighting fixed we see we're outside the main door to the castle. The teleport spot on the main steps out front works great and moves us to the entry hall.  We teleport again up to another floor.]
Upstairs at the castle Seska meets us full of excitement.  She notes that the queen is exonerated even though no doppleganger was found.  Suddenly a guard barrels through a doorway with people shouting behind him and knocks Seska down.  Seska gets up--but actually two Seskas get up! It's the doppleganger!!  But which one!!  We stare confused for a moment.  Only Crow-Eye notices that one of the Seskas is holding a dagger with a bit of blood on it.

Slade prepares a spell and shouts for the Seskas to hold.  Crow-Eye summons an eagle to attack the one with the bloody dagger.  Slade blasts the same "Seska" with bolts of fiery magic.  Sanjay casts a spell allowing him to discern the the moral depravity of persons in his sight.  The "Seska" not being attacked has an aura of evilness and Sanjay points to her and shouts "That one is evil, I see it!"  Axios shoots a ray to enfeeble but his aim is poor.  Ashe moves up and menaces the evil "Seska" to surrender.  The evil "Seska" stabs Talla, but is felled.  In death the creature reverts back to its hideous self.  Other guards rush in and the queen arrives.  We see that the queen is injured and Ashe moves to heal her.  Meanwhile we hand the two captured renegades over to the custody of the castle guards.  We reassure the queen that the thing is dead.  Axios congratulates himself on figuring out that it would be a doppleganger.

Seska relates that the Senschal figured out who the doppleganger was.  She she also reports that the queen has pardoned her mother and herself.  Talla notes that this means that now she doesn't have to guard Seska any more.  We enter the throne room and see our school headmaster, along with Lord Yager of the banking house, Lord Zenderhome, and Lady Alessia of House Leroung, and Sabina the queen's bodyguard.  Marshall Croft is there but takes her leave to see to the captured renegades.  A guard enters and says that Venster cannot be found in the castle.  Seska opines that perhaps "Venster" was the doppleganger all along.

[DM Kirk now clears all NPCs off the map simply my shifting them to the DM layer.]

The headmaster scolds us for leaving the Academae without permission.  He says he expects to see us back there in the morning. 

The queen asks if Seska would like to stay, impressed that our group was loyal to her and believed in her.  The queen asks Seska to be her wizardly bodyguard.  She also asks Talla to be a personal bodyguard as well and Talla agrees--providing she gets leave from the headmistress of the University.  We take a little while to wash up and refresh ourselves, the queen offering her the use of her personal bath.  [At this point Steve's token gets stuck on a pillar for a short while some how as we navigate through the castle to the royal bath.] 

Kirk now shifts us to another map--the Academae!  <insert screenshot>  Kirk shows us our dorm room and how to use the door-teleport to go from the room to the outdoor map.

The Academae Campaign: Dopplegangers and Renegades

 [The game continues on Roll20 for our Academae campaign.  Our heroes are still at the castle in Korvosa trying to sort out the confusion surrounding the murder of the old king and accusations against his youthful queen.]

We are taken aback at the threats to the queen by the king's half-brother Venster.  We check again to see if the painter, Trinia Sabor could actually have seen the location of the hidden shrine to Asmodeus from the narrow hallway outside the queen's room and find that she really could not have done so in the manner described.  Talla asks the queen's bodyguard whether the queen ever ventures out by herself, other than the couple times she joined us on our crypt exploration.  The bodyguard says yes, but she is almost always accompanied by guards.

We learn that Venster claims he is half-brother to the deceased king because his mother Queen Domina, who is also mother of the king, had him before marrying and having the king. 

The castle seneschal takes Talla aside and asks for help in finding proof about the queen's involvement--either for or against.  He will see to the queen's coronation if she is innocent, but can remove her from the throne if no proof found.  Talla, half-seriously, asks the queen if she can just kill the seneschal off.  The Hellknight commander Severs DiViri is there with Field Marshall Croft, head of the guards.  The queen demands to know where the Peers are, who she summoned for the review.  A guard, fearfully, says the queen said to dismiss them.  Talla asks the bodyguard if she was with the queen all day yesterday; the bodyguard says yes.  And did she see any of the Peers?: no.  Croft says she saw the queen emerge from a room off to the side by herself--so we determine there must be a double.  Axios exclaims there must therefore be a creature called a doppleganger loose in the castle somewhere.  The queen orders a search of the castle, and that the Peers be sent for again.  Sanjay wonders how you can search a castle for a creature who can change its appearance to be anyone.

We talk with the queen about the possibility that the seneschal is actually plotting to replace the queen with the double and thus her life might be in danger.  [At this point DM Kirk accidentally moves a torch from the wall on the Roll20 map.  Turns out that some items are not fully fixed in place as expected.]  We decide to proceed to the chapel of the castle with the queen.  On the way we pass through a small art gallery--where we see the portrait of the king painted by the painter Trinia Sabor--then down a narrow staircase.  [On the Roll20 map, Dan's character disappears as we "teleport" to the next floor.  We spend some time finding him, then trying to find how to get to him on the huge black, unrevealed map.  Finally we all come together on the staircase on the next level, but it takes a bit to get the door on the map open and start revealing things.]    Finally we arrive at the chapel, which has a small fountain chamber outside the doors.  There is actually a statue here of a tall man with his arms out--the dead god Aroden!  The queen asks Axios if he can get it re-consecrated to Iomedae.  Axios is willing, but wonders if re-dedicating it might lead to trouble.  The queen formally puts him in charge of the re-dedication and Axios is pleased.

We head back from the chapel.  [Ashe's character gets lost on the map as we use the stairway "teleports" from floor to floor, apparently because he does not have a currently active light source.  Mike helps us get Light spells set up properly on our spell lists.]   We arrive back at the throne room, where the queen seats herself on the throne.  The queen asks Axios about Cheliax.  Axios realizes that the queen is supposed to be from Cheliax--which makes it odd that she would ask about it.  The queen asks if Axios knows Queen Abrogail of Cheliax.  Axios says he is here to train to become her champion--a champion magus--having been chosen from the gladiator pits.  The queen gets confirmation from Axios that he is, in fact, of noble blood.

The queen then draws Ashe, her former "boyfriend", aside into a side room for a private talk.  The queen thanks Ashe for keeping their clandestine relationship secret, but explains that she acted as she did because of the spell she was under--and besides Ashe is not of noble blood.  Ashe asks if they are over.  The queen confirms they are and asks him to please be discreet, particularly with Venster.  Ashe is openly thrilled they are breaking up, which surprises the queen but she is pleased it was so painless.

The queen wonders if she should arrest Venster, because of his threats and attempts to implicate her in the murder.  But she also wonders if this will make her seem unjust.  [In Roll20 we now have issues with hearability.  We find that if a person suddenly cannot hear anyone else, they need to exit the game and re-enter to restore connectivity.]  We argue that we don't have any real proof against him.  Ashe argues that the painter is an illusionist and thus there are probably illusions involved.  The queen suggests finding the source of the poison as a possible lead.

Field Marshall Croft returns and informs the queen that there is a problem: a renegade soldier, Verik Vancaskerkin.  In the confusion of the recent rioting he left his post and took some other soldiers with him.  They seized a slaughterhouse and are now, strangely, handing out free meat.  Croft is hesitant to send any other soldiers and asks if the PCs can help bring him in.  Sanjay is reluctant, but we think it will give us time away to think.  Seska volunteers to stay behind with the queen.  We head out.
[DM Kirk drags our icons to a new map.  It is all black except my icon.  Then Kirk reveals a starting area and we can see a narrow area outside "All the World's Meat".  Now there's a name for you.]  We enter the shop, and find a lot of flies, no meat in sight, and two people hanging around a little too casually behind the counter.  Talla says we are here from the castle, to inspect the warehouse.  One of then two men says that won't be necessary and we can't come in.  Talla says we'll have to arrest him--and he calls for reinforcements.  [Sanjay rolls a 1 for initiative.  So much for super-cool 3D dice.] 

Now we notice that the "shopkeepers" are clad in chainmail and girt with longswords--as one quickly slips through a door to the back to summon help.  Slade blasts the one blocking our way with a bolt of magical energy.  It is only then we realize that we weren't given any real description of Vancaskerkin--making it possible that we just killed him.  But then [quick Int checks all around] we remember being told he is skilled with bow and spear, making it likely he will be armed with one or both of those.

Axios steps into the back room, sees several guys, and tries to intimidate one into putting down his weapons and just talk to us.  Axios swears he won't hurt him, but it doesn't work quite as planned.  So Ashe just steps up and whacks him in the head with the flat of his glaive, knocking him out cold--and quite badly injured.  Crow-eye summons an earth elemental to grapple another fellow in the back room.  [We continue to have problems in Roll20 with people's sound dropping out.]  Another guy moves to attack Axios, hitting him with a sword.  Another two attack the elemental.  Sanjay and Slade size up the situation and position themselves for action.  Axios threatens to incinerate the renegades all with flame if they do not surrender, and sparks and smoke spurt impressively from his mouth as he speaks.  One fellow drops his weapon.  Axios then spews oral flame across the other two and the elemental.  The two men die in flaming agony.  Axios asks the survivor where Vankaskerkin is and the guy points upstairs.  Axios says to go get him, now.  The guy flees farther back into the building instead.  Axios yells to head upstairs and Slade leaps forward.  Ashe moves to his victim and uses his healing powers to save him from dying.  Upstairs Slade and Axios corner a man wearing a cloak with the insignia of the guard: perhaps our quarry Vancaskerkin!

The Academae Campaign: Clues, Lies, and Recriminations

[Another play write-up from our Academae campaign run on Roll20.]

So we were still the headmistresses' office at the University of Korvosa.

There is a knock and a familiar face enters--the headmaster's favorite nephew, Boxter.  He mentions he is looking for a pupil of his.  Axios looks shaken.  Boxter says that Axios must return at once and he will pay for his insubordination.  Axios takes his leave, but promises to return.  He leaves with Boxter.  Talla notes that it was Axios who brought the whole matter here, but now just departs.  The headmistress says her duty now is to bring Trianna the painter to the castle.  As Talla sighs, Seska points out that the painter will be implicating the queen in the king's murder.  Seska and her mother have a heated discussion on this.  The mother says she has the authority of House Leroung and charges Seska with delivering the painter safely to the seneschal at the castle.  Seska is quite opposed, suggesting that swift vigilante justice on the painter might be better to save the queen from scandal.

We bargain with the headmistress for a bit and get her to allow us to wait until the next morning before taking her to the castle, on the basis that some of us are wounded and Ashe is still under the influence of strong drink.

Talla points out that we need to figure out exactly when the queen began coming to the Academae.  We struggle to remember, but finally figure out that there was talk about the queen and her marriage beginning about a year ago and that's when she started appearing at the Academae.  We decide to check the university records on a "Trika" (the queen's alias when she is out adventuring incognito) to help get some info.  Trika turns out to be a fairly common name, unfortunately, and there are seven in the records.  However, only one started about a year ago.  Sanjay and Crow-eye volunteer to go check the records at the Academae.  Slade and Seska are guarding the painter.  Ashe "consults the gods".  Ashe also brings up the idea of finding a senior cleric who can use the power of the gods to discern if a person is lying.  The high priest of Pharasma and the cleric we met earlier at the castle are mentioned but we don't come to a conclusion.  Ashe reminds us that there was actually poison found in the king's body.

Crow-eye and Sanjay head over to the Academae.  Sanjay remembers looking in the big crystal ball there earlier and seeing someone in a location under the library of the university.  At the Academae Crow-eye heads into the records office to research admissions.  The person behind the desk is suspicious and asks why he wants to, and under what authority.  Crow-eye tries to impress the person, noting he is "The Crow-eye of the Clan Antazi!" and notes that he needs to look up a person of importance to the queen!  Crow-eye talks his way in, but finds no Trika mentioned at all [due to a failed Diplomacy roll].  Crow-eye asks the clerk for help.  The clerk finds one, but she left three years ago.

Sanjay makes his way to the office of the Dean of Divination and eagerly communes with the large crystal ball.  He tries to go back in time to see the queen during one of her rumored visits to the Temple of Asmodeus but fails.  He then tries to check on the unusual location under the library at the university and succeeds, seeing the headmistress of the university talking there with the dean of divination but he cannot hear any sounds.  They are talking--then the dean notices Sanjay and tries to communicate by holding up a written note, but it is too fuzzy to read.  Crow-eye joins Sanjay in the office and locks the door.  Sanjay now turns his powers to the queen, and it zooms to the castle with dizzying speed.  The queen is there with her bodyguard, pacing and rubbing her hands.  The seneschal is there.  Various people are coming and going.  The cleric of Pharasma is there as well, with scribes taking dictation.  Crow-eye comes up and asks "see anything good?"  Sanjay manages to focus in on the dictation scrolls and it's about the king having seen the queen dropping something into his tea, also that he doesn't want to hurt Seska.  Sanjay surmises that the cleric has spoken with the king in the spirit world and is dictating the conversation.

Ashe finally awakens in a corner, feeling a bit better.  He attempts a "ritual" to "contact the gods".

Back at the crystal ball, Sanjay searches the castle for the king and finds him laid out in royal style.  Then he sees the king's half-brother pass the chamber.  Sanjay tries to focus on him, sees him possibly talk to someone in a cell, and notices that he had something in his hand but it's gone now.  He tries to look in the cell but can't get it into focus.  Crow-eye watches the ball swirl with colors--go black for a bit and Sanjay go a bit rigid--and then fade out.  Sanjay says he's a bit tired and wants to stop now.  The two head back to the university, but make a stop at the castle guardhouse on the way to get the magical book and other items they left for safekeeping.

Sanjay and Crow-eye arrive safely back at the university.  They fill Ashe and Talla in on what they learned.  Ashe suggests doing a Harrow card reading.  Sanjay performs the reading and the main card is "The Liar" and it applies somehow to the king's half-brother.

Sanjay now checks the book of magic found in the crypt.  Casting a spell to discern magic presences he finds evocation, enchantment, and necromancy.  Sanjay is still suspicious--this was previously the property of a necromancer--and carefully opens it with a poker from the fireplace.  Nothing happens so he goes over and starts reading.  There are spells for someone called "Vreeg":

Feather Fall (L1)
Magic Missile (L1)
Ray of Enfeeblement (L1)
Sleep (L1)
Chill Touch (L1)
Darkness (L2)
Command Undead (L2)
False Life (L2)
Scorching Ray (L2)
Water Breathing (L3)
Gentle Repose (L3)
Fly (L3)
Vampiric Touch (L3)
Continual Flame (L3)

Sanjay also checks the scroll and finds it has two spells: Shield (extended) and Spectral Hand.  He then turns in for the night to rest up.

The next morning we awaken.  Seska is rather tired because she didn't dare actually go to sleep while watching the painter.  We head for the castle, escorting the painter, and arrive safely.  At the castle we walk in and find a lot of activity.  There are a lot of armed guards around the castle seneschal,  The chief cleric of Pharasma is there, as is the queen.  We notice that the queen is trying to be calm and dignified, but is clearly very worried.  The seneschal comes over to us.  "I would like to have a word with you.  It seems this is the person we are looking for", pointing at the painter.  "The painter is a very important witness to what is going on here.  The queen said the painter was with the king and we want to question her."  The seneschal wants to take the painter elsewhere.  Talla asks why, and the seneschal says he merely wants her to be comfortable, adding that one of two of us may accompany her.

Seneschal then takes Talla aside for a whispered conversation.  He explains that he is in charge of the murder investigation.  They got disturbing news when the cleric of Pharasma communed with the spirit of the king: the king saw the queen put something in his tea--but he couldn't remember anything which happened after that.  Talla questions why the king did nothing after seeing this--but the seneschal repeats that the king couldn't remember anything else.  The painter is brought for questioning and seated.  Trianna the painter testifies that she was hired, did paint the picture, and it's hanging up somewhere.  The painter repeats that she saw the queen put something in the king's tea and the queen then threatened to kill her horribly if she didn't keep quiet.  The painter gets up "I can show you something but you have to keep the queen away from me."  Slade points out that the painter was told there was an understanding that she would make no demands, threating her with a clawed hand.  The guards put hands to weapons.   The painter walks quietly down the hallway and we follow, to the queen's chamber.  "I saw her do this", she says.  She presses something and a panel in the wall opens revealing a shrine to Asmodeus with cups and vials, some unstoppered.  Talla questions when exactly she saw the queen reveal this shrine.  The Trianna tries to explain when, but gives a confusing answer as to whether it was the day of the alleged poisoning or another day.

Sanjay, Ashe, and the Pharasmin cleric use their various skills and powers to check the contents of the vials.  Meanwhile, Talla goes to have a talk with the queen.  The queen protests her innocence.  Talla asks if the queen knows who "Trika" is and the queen confirms it's her--but asks that it be kept quiet.  Talla also relates to the queen that a secret shrine to Asmodeus was found in the wall of her bedroom--and she appears genuinely shocked and surprised.  Talla then asks the bodyguard how long he's worked here.  He relates that he came here before the queen, became acquainted with the queen and was later selected for her bodyguard.  The bodyguard is unaware of any construction work on the queen's bedchamber.  Talla surmises the shrine was already there before the queen moved in.

Meanwhile the seneschal is promising the painter protection and Slade, still suspicious, stands by as guard--and possibly executioner.  Talla pulls Ashe and Sanjay aside and asks if we have anything to determine lies.  Sanjay says he has a spell ready which can determine a person's moral persuasion.  Talla asks the painter to close the secret panel for us but she claims to not know how.  Talla finds it is easy to close and closes it.  Talla now asks exactly where the painter was standing when she saw the queen open the panel.  Talla stands at the indicated spot, which is outside the room, and finds there would be a good view from there of anyone opening the panel.

Talla gets confirmation from the senechal that worship of  the god Asmodeus is frowned upon but allowed.  Talla finds it odd that the queen would have a secret shrine and that she would have it where it could be so easily seen and why she would leave the door to the room open while opening the door.  The painter reconfirms that the door was open and Talla questions why it would be open like that.

Meanwhile, Axios has an argument with his mentor Boxter then storms off to the castle to rejoin us.

Back at the castle, the king's half-brother Venster now comes in, goes to the queen.  Talla hears him whisper "Enjoy the throne while you can."  Then Venster goes to the cleric and seneschal to learn what has transpired with the communing, questioning of the painter, and discovery of the secret shrine.  Venster insists the proof against the queen is solid, she must be removed from the throne and hanged.  Sabina the bodyguard and Talla step in to guard the queen, Sabina drawing a two-handed sword and Talla drawing her weapons.  Talla says the seneschal is not empowered to remove the queen.  The seneschal's guards and some hellknights there draw weapons in response.  Axios arrives just in time to view the scene, exclaiming "What's going on!"

Sanjay draws back in alarm and Crow-eye joins him.  Slade maneuvers behind the seneschal.  The queen shouts "There will be no bloodshed here.  Put away your weapons!"  Slade moves over, maneuvering to push Venster out from his hiding place behind the seneschal.  The seneschal's guards block Slade in a tense confrontation.  Slade calls Venster out to stand out like a man if he's going to make such accusations.  Venster comes out and confronts Slade, asking him to back down.  Slade is amused by the lesser man's challenge.  Venster: "You don't scare me".   Slade: "You don't even rate my attention, boy!"  The queen again asks all to put away their weapons, and asks Slade to step back.  Slade courteously accedes to the queen's request.  The guards lower their weapons.  The tension eases a bit.

The queen asks Venster if he is really accusing her of poisoning her "beloved husband".  Slade discerns that she didn't love the king all that much--but thinks that few people actually loved the late king anyway.

Axios asks what the heck is going on.  The queen explains, carefully, that the seneschal thinks he has enough evidence relating to the killing of the king to remove her from her new throne.  The seneschal comes forward and explains that he does have the legal power to remove a corrupt monarch.  We argue that there must be a proper trial.  Venster threatens to have a "hanging judge" try the case.  Talla slides over as Venster exits and says "I heard what you said to the queen about her throne--and I say the same to you."  Talla then asks the seneschal if the cleric was here at the castle when he used his priestly powers to commune with the king.  The seneschal admits he knows nothing of what divine methods were used by the cleric--the cleric merely related what the king;s spirit supposedly said.  And the cleric also used a divine invocation which showed that the painter lied.  Talla asserts that she is determined to have a fair trial.

The queen beckons us all over and pleads for our help.  Axios tells her the Harrow cards said that something is impersonating her.  He also suddenly puts in a personal request for help getting out of hot water he's in at the school.  Axios also suggests replacing the secret shrine of Asmodeus with maybe one of Iomedae, his favored goddess.

So, you can use miniatures in Roll20...sort of.

Okay, so the DM of our game on Roll20, the redoubtable Mr. Kirk, generously bought some miniatures to be our characters a little while back.  But not long after we started doing sessions on Roll20.  Roll20 uses small portraits/icons to show the positions of characters, monsters, and anything else you might want to move around during a session.  We had been using a mix of images found on the Intertubez and some Order of the Stick style portraits I did a couple months back.  However there were complaints from persons who do not need to be named--but their initials are "Kaiser"--about how top-down images would look better on the maps.  Apparently my crappy little portraits just weren't cutting it.

Fine.

Be that way.

No, I'm okay...I just got something in my eye, that's all.

Anyway, Kirk recently got all the miniatures primed, took overhead photos of them, and put them into Roll20 to play around with (although my Sanjay image, showing I'm logged in, at the bottom has defaulted to the first image I ever loaded in Roll20).

The Academae Campaign - The Darkness at the End of the Tunnel

[Our Pathfinder game run by the redoubtable Kirk, dubbed The Academae Campaign, reconvened in Roll20 on Monday.  Our discomfited band of heroes continued with their second venturing into the nasty old crypt in the graveyards of Korvosa on a quest for the remaining body parts of the son of a Shoanti barbarian chieftain...]

Our group pauses to regroup and assess the situation after a short but brutal fight with a hideous flesh-thing.  Talla claps for our little victory, won despite her sensible advice, and asks sardonically "Was it really necessary to do that?"  Slade points out, correctly, that nobody got hurt.  We debate leaving the damp miserable crypt to rest up, a suggestion which Sanjay supports.  Axion suggests scouting a bit more and first.  Talla suggests scouting might not work well for some party members.  [At this point we notice that our characters have visibility only in a 90 degree sector to the front, but for a very, very long distance.  We discuss whether that is a proper setting or whether we should have a full 360 degree lighted area but only out to torch radius.  We decide that the 90 degree is more realistic but experiment for a bit, moving the characters around to try out the view areas and viewable distances.  After an attempt at scouting through corridors with the limited 90-degree view we decide it's too much of a nuisance and go back to all-round vision, limited to light source distance.] We debate for a bit then go find a reasonably clean room in which to rest.  We rest for some time in the oppressive dimness of the rough-hewn chamber but it is enough for us to recover our mana.

Rested, we resume cautiously exploring--and soon encounter a tall, odd-looking, monstrous fellow in yet another miserable rough-hewn chamber.  Axios, leading the way, quickly steps forward and channels his arcane power to breath a gout of flame all over it.  The fellow is burned horribly and his meagre belongings catch fire.  Axios yells "Run!" at his victim.  "You foul ogre, run!"  The creature shrieks in charred pain, but un-intimidated yells back "You go in pit now!!"  Talla quickly relays what she can see of the scene to the rest of us, and Sanjay is not encouraged.  Talla leaps forward and takes up a defensive stance, crying out "Why, Axios, did you do that?"  Axios is impressed with her badassery.  "Cabbage-head angry now!!" the creature bellows.  He attempts to seize Talla but she deftly avoids him.  The narrow passage leading to the room where "Cabbage-head" was waiting prevents us from attacking as a group, leaving Axios and Talla at the front.  Axios and Talla withdraw a bit into two side-passages to draw it out and allow room for others to join in.  Axios breathes deadly flame again, but the creature endures the injury returns the favor, slamming a huge fist into the young magus.  Sanjay squeezes forward with a mix of exasperation and desperation and blasts the thing with vicious crackling lightning.  To Sanjay's great relief it collapses to the floor, charred and smoking.
We look into the room and peer a short way into a couple small side passages.  Exploring the room a bit more we find three deep pits, two with with malnourished, sickly persons in them.  One identifies herself as Tiora, and admits she was caught, well, trying to take things which didn't belong to her.  She promises if we rescue her she can repay us later.  We pull her out.  She explains it was "Cabbage-head" who threw her in here.  In the second pit we find a male beggar, who collapses and appears dead.  We pull him out, and find that he is actually dead. Axios offers Tiora a bit of bread.  She slumps, exhausted and limp in her ragged clothing, almost too weak to eat.  Ashe applies healing to the woman, alas out of entirely selfish motives.  Seska reminds Ashe that we are here on a mission to retrieve the body of the young Shoanti, not to "help" random women.

Slade checks the third pit, finds nothing, then re-checks the other two pits again.  We debate what to do with the dead man, finally agreeing to leave him here for someone to recover later.  We leave the room, bringing the semi-conscious woman with us.  We explore a narrow side passage but it soon ends in a cave-in.  We back-track and head in a direction which might be north.  [At this point we struggle a bit with moving all the character icons through the narrow passages in Roll20.  Realistic, perhaps, but still rather obnoxious.]  Talla, up front, comes to a door.  Opening it carefully she finds another rough-hewn room with a stench of decay and glistening tools for carving and slicing flesh and bone.  On a table is a large corpse made of parts of other corpses stitched together--and it has the garishly tattooed head of a young Shoanti man attached--likely the head of the fellow we've come to retrieve.  Axios strides forward and begins carefully cutting the stitches to release the head from the corpse-doll.  We enter and look around, noting two or three side passages.  Crow-eye finds a door and listens carefully for any activity on the far side.  He hears nothing and notices it does not have a lock.  Talla peers into another room, spotting a large four-poster bed, a desk, and a large mirror; there is also an opening into an adjacent smaller bedroom.

Talla suddenly hears strange incantations called out by someone nearby.  Slade hears something going on there as well and moves to join Talla.  Talla peers around and spots one of the strange little people-things which were playing the cruel game with the rats in the maze on our previous visit.  Talla realizes the incantations were the strange creature casting some spell.  Slade joins her.  Talla decides to smile as broadly as possible, then says "Hi!"  [The GM now urges Crow-eye to go through the door to really split the heck out of the party.  Crow-eye totally doesn't go for it at all.]  Axios continues his careful cutting of the crude stitching to free the head.

Slade notices the creature--he's floating up near the high ceiling--and blasts it by evoking massive flame.  Crow-eye dashes in to help, as do Axios, Ashe, and Sanjay.  [Numerous jokes about tubby Sanjay getting stuck in the narrow passage like Pooh bear.  Sanjay sees no humor in the situation at all.]  Slade shoots flame again, but misses his target.  Talla drops her torch, draws her second gladius, and attacks, scoring two hits on a summoned zombie as it shambles forward.  Crow-eye assesses the situation and summons two fierce celestial eagles to attack the floating wizard.  Axios launches a magic missile, wounding the wizardling.  A zombie comes at Axios and they battle in the doorway to the small bedroom.  Sanjay finally makes it into the large bedroom and hops on the bed to see better.  Slade blasts with flame and Talla slashes expertly.  One zombie falls.  Crow-eye now summons a small elemental to battle the remaining zombie, which is blocking the doorway to protect its master.  The celestial eagles continue their attack, screeching, clawing, and biting with righteous fury.  The wizard, whom we think is called a derro, dies screaming and plummets onto the bed below.  Ashe charges up with his glaive to engage the zombie.  Sanjay finally manages to focus and zaps the walking corpse with a ray of bitter cold and it collapses.  Talla swiftly moves to the wizard and slits his throat just to be sure he's dead.

We examine the two chambers, finding some skulls and a tattooed torso with an arm still attached.  The arm and torso twitch and thrash occasionally.  Sanjay is reminded is why he swore off necromancy forever when he settled on his course as a wizard.  We check for any valuables, finding a wand, a dagger, some poison, a robe, and a ring; there is also the wizard's spell book.  Sanjay eagerly seizes the book, then realizes it's probably full of hideous necromantic foulness.  He is conflicted but decides to examine the contents later in case there's something decent tucked away inside.

We now argue for a bit over who will he carrying the various bits of the Shoanti back to town, then realize we haven't found the last missing leg.  We decide to check the room which Crow-eye found earlier, back in the room where Axios retrieved the head.  Talla checks for traps, then cautiously enters.  It is a library filled with interesting-looking books and scrolls.  Slade notices there are many on diseases and plagues.  We gather them up.  Suddenly Slade spots a secret door!  We find the last leg.

We return to town with our loot and burdens.  The woman we rescued is good to her promise and gives Talla a wand of healing powers.  We drop off our stuff and go to see the queen.  Instead we meet a guard at the castle and he says the queen has incited a mob to go after the painter earlier suspected of poisoning the king. <party mass facepalm>

The Academae Campaign - Back to the Crypt

 [This Monday we once again fired up Roll20 and plunged back into The Academae Campaign.  This time we were pleased to have our friend Steve join us, his schedule having ultimately not worked out for the previous session.]

Having just dispatched several monstrous creatures we looked about the room a bit.  It was disgusting.  Filth of every description assaulted our senses.  We had however discovered several items of value hidden therein.  [It was here that our eager DM mentioned that my character, Prince Sanjay, was particularly filthy because he'd crawled around in the muck with his hands to find them.  I pointed out that he would never do such a thing, so we ret-conned it and the treasures disappeared back into the muck.]  Continued searching in the small place was a mistake because several of us reached our limits and added the contents of our stomachs to the already reeking mess on the floor.

Finally we gathered up the two severed well-tattooed legs of a youngish person whom we presumed to be the missing son of the Shoanti barbarian chieftain who we were pledged to seek out.  In search of more of the missing fellow the party backtracked and wandered in the cramped passages and small rooms beneath the ancient crypt.  Finally we emerged into an odd room, more of a corridor, stretching out to our left and right fifteen or so feet.  What made it odd was an array of skulls set into the opposite wall, mouths agape in obscene fashion.  Sanjay suspected some wizardry--likely necromantic foulness--and held back to study them from the doorway.  Several of the party cautiously moved into the corridor to investigate--when suddenly the skulls all spurted acid!  Our intrepid heroes were quite alert and managed to dodge the caustic liquid.  Then, with a strange crackling sound, two strange creatures which looked like a skeletal snake with a human skull, darted from the shadows. [At this point our buddy Steve made his appearance as well--but I'm sure it was just a coincidence.]

Crow-eye quickly summoned one of his faithful eagles to join the fray!  [Crow-eye summoning eagle swarms is quickly becoming a staple of our combats scenes; some might call it fowl play, but the fans seem to like it.]  The eagle immediately attacks one of the skeletal snakes, but does poorly. [We find Dan first needs to build an attack for the eagle in his Roll20 character sheet; Mike works with Dan to build it as we continue.]  The rest of our plucky bands sprang into action, but the weird skeleton snakes began a strange weaving dance and Ashe, Slade, and Talla became entranced by the hypnotic movements.  And suddenly a skeletal, cockroach-like creature scuttled out and nipped Talla.  And then another emerged and went for Ashe!  Crow-eye pushed forward into the corridor and his eagle attacked again, this time damaging the creature.  The young magus Axios, the latest addition to our band, crept up the steps into the corridor and surveyed the scene.  He quickly cast a spell on his longsword and started attacking. 

 Sanjay gingerly crept up on one of the skele-cockroaches, charged his hands with deadly arcane lightning and and destroyed it utterly with a clackling blast.  The snake-thing under attack by the eagle then bit our little feathered hero and killed it immediately!  Sanjay was sure it must have some deadly necro-venom.  Ashe was attacked next by the other bony cockroach-thing but only nipped slightly.  Axios pressed his attack on the snake, striking it with his ensorcelled sword.  Sanjay stepped forward again, mastering his fears, and again unleashed lightning, damaging it heavily.  But he felt a strange sensation, narrowly avoiding poisoning himself!  Axios was attacked next, slightly nipped, but that on top of his injuries from the earlier battle in the room of filth; Axios then is paralyzed by the poison!  Sanjay used his wizard's bonded wand to bring up the deadly Shocking Grasp once more.  However it went awry, missing the creature--but outlining a secret door nearby!

Ashe finally shook off his odd entrancement and brought his glaive into action.  Slade recovered as well and launched a magic bolt, finishing off the skele-snake attacking Sanjay.  Sanjay turned to cover Talla as she recovered as well.  Talla rushed immediately to attack the remaining skele-snake at the far end of the corridor.  Crow-eye commanded another eagle.  It maneuvered deftly around the remaining skele-roach and finished the crawling horror.  It's duty well performed it vanished whence it came.  Low on prepared mana for further lighting, Sanjay zapped the remaining thing for respectable but not terminal effect.  Talla drew her second gladius and double-attacked forcefully.  Finally Ashe stomped on it viciously, crushing it into bits.

The last of the unnamed horrors dispatched, our heroes took stock of the situation.  Sanjay took advantage of the lull to show everyone the secret door he discovered.  Talla examined it, found no sign of traps and easily unlocked it.   [Here things went a bit odd with Roll20.  We suddenly all spotted a new character approaching in one of the previous rooms. For a moment we panic thinking it may be some boss NPC maneuvering for a TPK.  But it's merely that our plucky DM Kirk has the visibility set wrong.]  As Talla and Axios moved forward to explore the new room our mentor from the Academae, Seska [half-elf daughter of Elissa Leroung], emerged from the shadows behind us!   We greeted her and she explained that the queen sent her.  Seska passed on that the queen called a meeting of the peers of the realm.  She also remembered more about the suspect painter.  Seska also mentioned we will get 200 shiny gold coins for finding the painter.  Seska also brought a wand from the queen to help us.  Slade examined the wand and found, to his glee, that it can shoot out  a magic flame attack.. But he is confused a bit about exactly how it works.  Seska noticed Axion and our new companion introduced himself as Axios Leroung, his last name marking him as a relative of hers.

Talla continued exploring and found a set of stairs leading down.  We followed cautiously down the very narrow passage.  [Here again the beauty of the Roll20 "fog of war" feature and limited character view came into play.  Using just the screen view to explore, without the usual mapping on paper, led to more realistic confusion in the cramped, winding passages of the crypt.]  After a bit we found our way back to the main room where we entered.  We then decided to backtrack to the room of skulls to check out a normal door there which we had bypassed.  We found Slade waiting impatiently and we inadvertently blinded him a bit with our light as we returned.

Talla checks the door, finding it not locked.  We push forward into the room and find a room with tables with beakers and vials, three cauldrons along the far wall, one of the tipped.  We spot a fellow with grayish skin and while hair near one of the tables.  Axios suspects he is a race called Derro.  Talla greets him cautiously in Common.  The fellow, slightly surprised, casts a spell.  A blast of intense sound ripples amongst us.  We all suffer injury, plus Talla and Slade are stunned.  Crow-eye summons a small earth elemental under the enemy and it attacks!  Ashe reaches across the table with his glaive to attack but fails.  Slade hits with a force missile from the fiendish diadem strangely embedded in his neck.  Axios rushes up and attacks with his longsword with good effect, finishing the fellow off.

We search the body for anything of interest, but he has nothing.  There is a door to the south and a passage to the east.  Talla heads for a door to the south, while Slade and Ashe watch a passageway to the east.  Talla hears whistling, then examines the door and notices that it is boarded over.  Talla heads to the corridor instead.  Axios tries the door.  Talla wonders why he would try a door obviously boarded to keep something out (or in).  Axios asks whether or not we need to kill everything down here.  We explain that no, we just need to find the rest of the deceased son.  Independently muinded Crow-eye sends his little earth elemental to assault the door.  The door is easily smashed.  (Talla mentally does a face-palm.) We catch sight of something hideous in the new room.  [The dim visibility was excellent in this game.  Newly-encountered creatures would actually be only dimly glimpsed in dark rooms, sending shivers down your spine.]  We notice, horrified, this creature is holding an arm with Shoanti tattoos.  [Cue numerous jokes about the thing "being armed", "we need to disarm him", etc.]  The thing is a lurching, shambling mound of flesh, bone, hair, and who knows what else!!

Crow-eye sends his earth elemental in to attack and force the thing back.  Talla stubbornly decides to watch the corridor she sensibly wanted to investigate while the idiot mages deal with the trouble they've started on their own.  Slade launches a Scorching Ray at the thing for good effect.  [Steve suddenly realizes with amusement that he's only 3rd level!  The rest of us had recently leveled up to 4th.]  Sanjay also summons a small earth elemental, behind the thing, and it joins the assault.  The shambling thing strikes Crow-eye's elemental.  Axios observes the thing carefully--and realizes it is a magically constructed creature called a golem!  Ashe pauses to give us all a holy blessing.

We argue about whether or not to use the dangerous new wand of flaming devastation.  Slade is tempted but Axios argues against.  Slade instead launches a magic missile but the result is a bit disappointing.  I look on with pleasure as my little elemental smashes the disturbing-looking thing repeatedly for good effect.  The golem creature demolishes Crow-eye's elemental with one mighty blow!  Then it fixes its gaze on Axios, with beady red eyes!  Axios steps back, hoping to lure it into the cauldron room where we can hit it from all sides.  Seska casts a spell creating webbing to stop it.  Crow-eye shoots acid at it but misses.  Talla continues to look on in wry amusement.  Slade blasts it with a Scorching Ray again and destroys it with cruel flame.  Slade blows the smoke off his fingers with great satisfaction.  We retrieve the arm, but find nothing of value in the small room.

What happened in our last game...on Roll20 - The Academae Campaign

Okay, so we're a couple sessions in with our every-other-Monday game.  We're using Pathfinder for the rules--it's pretty much our group's go-to rules for fantasy genre games--and we've recently moved it onto Roll20 to cut down on late travel on a work night, especially for our members who live farther away.  We've christened it "The Academae Game" because it's set in The Acadamae, a wizard's college in the Varisian city of Korvosa in the Pathfinder game world of Golarion.  Our characters are ostensibly there to study magic, but one's an imposter and two of them aren't even wizards. [My character is a bright and "prosperously plump" young diviner from a poor but proud family posing as Prince Sanjay Guptarama-Khanpooraja of Jalmeray so the prince can avoid the tedium (and danger) of a 10-year stint at the Acadamae.]

"Prince Sanjay"

After various unpleasant episodes at the school and a dungeon romp or two we awaken one morning to find the city torn by rioting--King Arbasti is dead!  What's more, Queen Ileosa Arbasti is suspected of murdering him.

Queen Ileosa ("Trinka")

This is awkward because the oracle in our group, Ashe, has already become carnally involved with her after meeting her while she was incognito posing as the young student "Trinka" at the Academae.  Nevertheless we slipped out of the school and made our way through the streets to the royal castle to see how "Trinka" was doing, found the king dead, the queen detained, confusing clues pointing towards necromantic magic--and we are still on the hook to finish an earlier quest to return the remains of a Shoanti chieftan's son taken down into some big crypt in the graveyard.  In short, we've had a pretty full morning.

With our only big clues being the poison in the king's body and a strange necromantic spell on the queen, which makes her ill when Ashe goes any distance away, we decide some research is in order.  The University of Korvosa has the best library around so it's the obvious place to start.  Sanjay is understandably apprehensive about leaving the obvious safety of the heavily-guarded castle to venture out into riot-torn Korvosa.  Peering out some arrow slits we see some overly-armored types have arrived to deal with the crowd out front--some of the local Hell Knights from the Order of the Nail.  Sanjay determines that their presence simply provides yet another reason to stay inside for the time being.

A Hell Knight

While we observe, a group of castle guards exit the front gate and descend the main stairs to assist in pacifying the crowd.  The queen is suddenly seized with the determination to intervene and dashes down to the gate.  Ashe grabs her arm, a rash act when dealing with royalty, and tries to argue her into staying.  She quells him with a brutal glance fit for queen.  Ashe tries pleading but it is no use and the rushes off.  Our tiefling classmate Slade smacks the back of Ashe's head in irritation.  Our elven friend Talla Sleipnir (who is quite adept with her twin blades) rushes after the queen, also calling ahead to alert the guards to her majesty's arrival.  Queen Aliosa commands the Hell Knights to cease and desist but then launches into a disjointed explanation for the crowd about the king's poisoning and false rumors of a sorceror being involved.  The scene becomes awkward and Talla, sensible as always, begins dragging the queen to safety.  The rest of us rush down and help Talla, with the urging of the castle guards.  Outside the Hell Knights and angry korvosan mob mill about in confusion at the queen's sudden outburst.

Back inside Talla remonstrates with the queen.  "So, you want to go out into an angry mob, who wants your head for killing the king, and you run out and say the king was poisoned, and there is no sorcerer--are you crazy?" The queen is rather abashed, no doubt still a bit confused from the unsettling events of the past two days.  Talla shoos the rest of us off to research the two clues we have from investigating the death of the king: poison and necromancy.  Sanjay is still reluctant to leave, especially with the added element of a force of Hell Knights eager to "restore order".  Our new friend Axios Leroung, a young human former gladiator from Cheliax with a mysterious heretic's brand, wisely suggests we find a side exit.  Before heading out we decide that Sanjay and Crow-Eye (another wizard student, a young human Azlanti chap) will research the poison, because we both have a great antipathy for necromancy, and Ashe, Axion, and Slade will research the necromantic effect.  Talla claims no knowledge of either topic and volunteers to stay with the queen, in case she decides to rush off somewhere dangerous again.

Heading downstairs we meet Field Marshall Cressida Kroft of the Sable Company.  Sanjay is excited to meet a member of this company, famed for their hippogriff mounts, but is able to contain his enthusiasm.  Field Marshall Kroft reminds us of our sworn quest to retrieve the body of the chieftain's son and we assure her that we are on the job.  She then introduces us to a tall human man, well-dressed, with salt-and-pepper hair.  This dashing fellow is Vencarlo Orisini, swordmaster at the Orisini Academy where they teach swordsmanship.  Orisini asks about a member of our group who is gaining a reputation for swordplay and we inform him Talla is upstairs attending to the queen.  Orisini then offers to escort us through the streets.  We are hesitant to accept, since his manner is somewhat mysterious.  But the Field Marshall assures us of the swordmaster's bone fides and we reluctantly accept his offer.

We leave the castle and begin making our way to the university.  As we walk Orisini takes note of our newest companion, Axios.  Orisini points out that the people of Cheliax, whence Axios has come, are quite open in their worship of devils.  Axios is somewhat taken aback but counters that not everyone of Cheliax is of that persuasion.  Orisini continues his probing, commenting that we don't seem like the usual types at the Academae, with the insinuation that the residents there are likely devil worshipers.  Our tiefling companion Slade suspects Orisini is referring to him, and by extension all the tiefling guards at our school.  Orisini demurs by stating that being of fiendish ancestry does not necessarily make on a worshipper of devils.  Slade states clearly that he would be glad to kill a devil.  Orsini changes the subject, asking about our relationship to the queen.  He reveals that he is aware she has assigned us a task.  He goes on to mention rumors that the queen has been spotted visiting the temple of Asmodeus in town.  Sanjay feels the need to defend the queen from such rumors and explains we have not witnessed any such visit and know of no connection between the queen and that temple.  Eventually we arrive at the university.  There is some signs a mob was present sometime earlier but the coast is clear and we enter without incident.

Back at the castle Talla hears a knock at the door to the queen's chamber.  The queen recognizes the visitor as one Venster.  The bodyguard who is also in the chamber explains that Venster is a half-brother to the deceased king.  The queen allows Venster admittance to her presence but insists he speak with Talla and the bodyguard present.  Venster reminds the queen that she hired a person to paint a portrait of the king and suggests that person may have been the poisoner.  The queen remembers the painter.  In fact it was she who found the woman to come paint.  The painter and the king were alone on-and-off for about a month and thus she had many opportunities to poison him somehow.  Talla wonders why this particular woman would want to poison the king.

And back at the university, Orisini takes his leave of our heroes and goes off into the university on business of his own.  Our group heads directly to the library and commences the research.  After some searching Ashe finds information about a cleansing ritual which can only be performed by a cleric of Pharasma.  He recalls there is a temple of the Lady of Graves here.  Ashe also remembers a night time ritual or performance where the pharasmins summon undead and then battle them.  Sanjay tries numerous books but only finds an old news sheet item mentioning a relevant-sounding incident in passing.  Ashe thinks he may have to get in contact with some shady types to learn anything more.

At the castle, the queen again grows ill with separation from Ashe due to the strange necromantic malady.  She does take the time to inform the Marshall about the painter.

Ashe heads off to the temple of Pharasma and we accompany him into the troubled streets of Korvosa.  We arrive at the temple without incident.  It is imposing, surrounded by a wide graveyard.  Ashe knocks and priests greets us, asking if we need assistance due to injury in the rioting.  Ashe explains that a royal personage is in need of a cleansing.  The priest invites us in to wait and leaves to inform one more senior.  He returns a short time later with an older cleric, the chief priest of Pharasma at the temple.  They ask about this royal person, mentioning they've heard the king was poisoned by a sorceress.  Ashe explains that we ourselves are just students but are friends of the queen here on her behalf.  He explains about the old reference to a cleansing ritual of the Pharasmins and asks if they can help us.  The high priest agrees to help.  After arming himself and arranging a small armed escort he accompanies us back to the castle.

The streets are quiet and at the castle the large, restless mob has been replaced with several scattered corpses.  We enter and the Marshall and seneschal of the castle greet the high priest and bid him welcome.  We follow the high priest up to the queen's bed chamber where she waits, still ill.  The priest first calls on his divine powers and determines that she is cursed.  (Cursed to fall for Ashe, thinks Sanjay.)  He brings out an ancient-looking scroll and reads it with much passion.  An effect occurs, which we are later strangely unable to recall clearly, and declares the queen free of the curse.  Sanjay and Slade use their arcane powers to assess the queen's status.  Sanjay finds only a small bit of magic left, which he finds is a bit of abjuration magic on a ring she is wearing.  We are all pleased and relieved---until Sanjay realizes that we now have no excuse to delay returning to the crypts once again.

With the queen apparently safe, we debate returning to the crypts to look for the chieftain's son's body.  Sanjay is less than enthusiastic, but admits that we did agree to pursue the quest.  The queen jokes about coming with us again.  Talla points out that the queen is now the sole ruler.  She further suggests the queen should pull herself together, meet with her advisers, get word out to the people, and call a meeting of all the nobles of the kingdom.  Maybe then, Talla offers, we might consider sneaking her out for an adventure some day.  Sanjay is mildly surprised at this offer--especially with the bodyguard still standing right there.  Before we leave the queen instructs us to be mindful of our commitment to the chieftain.  She gifts us with a pair of healing potions each to keep us safe.  We thank her (Sanjay is particularly relieved) and take our leave.

Not long after we arrive back at the crypt.  Once more we descend the stairs and enter the large square room with large pillars.  [At this point our GM Kirk swapped in the crypt map.  At first the screen went black--because of course he had not set our lighting conditions.  We worked on getting each character's light/vision radius and degrees of field of view for a bit.  As soon as Kirk set the area for my Light spell, I could see the map lit appropriately--as shown below--pretty cool!  The light radius moved beautifully as I moved; my light spell radius moved and illuminated with proper shadows!]

We proceed carefully and at first the place is deserted.  Suddenly Talla spots a statue down a side passage--but no, it moves!  Ashe heads down, glaive ready, to investigate but the rest of hang back.  [Here we paused to struggle a bit with how to bring up the turn order window which automatically displays the characters' order in the round based on our Initiative rolls.]  Sanjay cast his newest spell, Protection from Evil, partly because it seemed like it might be handy here and partly because he was eager to try it out in the field.  The narrow passage prevented most of us from engaging the zombies and odd tentacled creatures in the room at the end of it, but Sanjay was not overly disappointed at that turn of events.  The fight is short and no one dies. We find a pair of young man's legs with Shoanti tattoos and figure that must be the uneaten portion of the missing tribal scion.  The room is ankle deep in mud, moldy rubbish, and repulsive excretia of several types.  We hold our noses (literally) and search it all.  Sanjay is surprisingly effective, perhaps in his eagerness to find anything and get out, finding an amber necklace, a silver dagger, and a sealed elixir of unknown type.

Review: People of the Stars for Pathfinder

I'm not a big fan of mixing fantasy and sci-fi in gaming.  I see them as two very distinctive genres and typically I want to be immersed in either one of the other during play.  But a little while ago I had a subscription to Paizo's adventure paths and got the "Iron Gods" one, which is an extended homage to the old D&D module "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks".  I got it just to see how they'd do an entire campaign of mixed fantasy and sci-fi.  Overall I liked it but still wasn't sure I'd want to run that type of game.  Paizo has a couple companion products out to support it.  I've had them on wish list, but as lower priorities.  Then yesterday Paizo put out their "rainy day" sale for 10% off and I decided to take the plunge, buying their "Pathfinder Player Companion - People of the Stars" and the "Technology Guide".

"People of the Stars" is only 38 pages, cover to cover, but it does what it says. You get four full player races, a couple less detailed races, a good selection of thematic traits and archetypes, sidebars on each of the planets in the solar system for Paizo's campaign universe (properly detailed in their "Distant Worlds" book, which I recommend if the topic interests you), some magic items, and brief rules on gravity, vacuum, and other planetary/space conditions.  There is tantalizing mention of the Dark Tapestry, an evil alien interstellar conspiracy, but you'll need one of the Iron Gods books for details on that.

I liked two of the races (android and kasathas) but wasn't exited by the other two--but that's just a personal thing. The other bits were only okay I thought.  So overall I was mildly disappointed but don't feel I wasted my cash.  I'm considering how to run a campaign set in the D&D ethereal plane, which is similar to a interstellar setting, and this book is good food for thought towards that end.

Another run with Roll20 last night

Okay, so for our Monday night game (actually on Tuesday this week), which we're calling "The Acadamae", we'd discussed moving online--at least occasionally.  So with the possibility of a lot of ice on the roads from the recent snow storm we figured this was as good a time as any to give it a try.  Our GM, Kirk, had already set up a Roll20 account for the game and the rest of us were already in for another game being built by our buddy Bill (also a player in Kirk's game).  However, Kirk hadn't time to put much of the way of maps or stuff into it and we wanted to compare it with Google Hangouts anyway.

After trying Hangouts we decided that Roll20 worked fine and we all moved there.  Overall it went well.  At first I had to exit Firefox and download Chrome to run Roll20 smoothly but that only took a minute or two.  I was able to easily transcribe a lot of my character info into my Roll20 character sheet from Hero Lab while we played and immediately begin using it for skill checks, etc.  I used the on-screen 3D dice roller (with the final modified results showing in the chat bar on the right) because I thought it was fun but the rest of the group wasn't so into that feature.

I successfully loaded an image to use as a character portrait but it wouldn't display at the bottom with the others for some reason and in the chat window it kept using a mini version of the old one I made for Bill's game.  Actually three of the avatars displayed were holdovers of the Order of the Stick style ones I made for Bill's Game.  Mike loaded new a cool one which matched his character nicely but there was only a generic for Talla.  I might make more OotS style portraits for the characters in this game.  They're fun to draw.