This was the tenth session of our Kingmaker campaign, and we are now half-way through the series. Well, almost: the group need to do a bunch of kingdom-building before they’re ready for the fourth adventure, but they have dealt with the major threat of the Varnhold Vanishing. Most of the session was spent exploring Vordakai’s Tomb, with one month’s worth of kingdom-building activities.

The group also spent a few days out in the wilderness, exploring mostly blank hexes, although they did run off a group of rather clueless ettercaps who were swiftly fireballed out of their misery. I made sure to actually read the adventure’s description of the ettercaps to the players, so they could fully appreciate the comedy of the situation. I think a few worgs also popped up at one point (twin fireballs dealt with them), and Greg’s Duke Wyvern managed to convince the cyclopes living in the hills to join his growing kingdom. Hmm. He rolled high enough to convert “unfriendly” to “helpful” on his Diplomacy check, and given he’s also recruited a giant for the kingdom, it felt right.

However, this was all a side-show compared to the major attraction: exploring Vordakai’s Tomb. Not that they knew it was his tomb, nor that the vanished citizens of Varnhold could be found here. No, it was just another adventure site for them; they still though the centaurs were responsible, but they wanted to complete exploring the tomb. It should be noted that they had tried to find the centaurs, and wandered entirely into the wrong area of the map.

The major problem they had to face was the flooded trap room they’d triggered in the previous session; this was solved by Joe gaining water breathing and similar spells and using them so the group could pass through the chamber.

The second level of the tomb brought them to a room with a suspicious tile pattern on the floor; the group decided to avoid the pattern and check another set of doors. This led to a great crypt and two soul-eaters. That was a bit of a challenge for the players, but Greg’s paladin is terrifyingly effective with his sword, as likewise Tim’s alchemist with his mutagenic claws, and they were soon dealt with. Michael’s oracle used his restoration spells to get rid of the wisdom damage, and then we had to deal with one of Paizo’s map stuff-ups: the secret door is marked in the wrong wall, and the room codes obscure where the walls and doors actually are.

Once we’d worked out what was meant to be happening, the group found the secret teleportation chamber of the spire. Not that they did anything with it: just noting it for later use.

From there, they found the room of boiling tar, which was enough to make them quickly retreat from the chamber and actually try stepping on the coloured tiles of the first chamber. Duke Wyvern was the first to try it, and nothing happened to him! (This was a surprise!) Instead, he managed to trigger the trap on the altars as he opened the far doors, broiling everyone in Stygian hellfires. Cold and wisdom damage affected only a few characters, and Michael used up bunch more of his oracles spells to heal the group.

The next threat was a Piscodaemon, which gave me a few probelms in pronouncing it. (Daemon is correctly pronounced “demon”, but you can’t tell the difference. So Piscodaymon is what it became). It might have had a high spell resistance, but Michael blinded it with a holy smite and from there Greg ripped it apart, whilst Tim wished his alchemist had a way of gaining “good” claws.

Beyond the daemon lay a captured centaur, who the group rescued and befriended. Duke Wyvern can be very charming when he puts his mind to it. As the group wanted better spells to get past the tar, they chose to leave the dungeon at that point, escorting Xamanthe the centaur out.

The next day, having prepared fire resistance spells and a lot of spider climb spells, the group tackled the tar pit and discovered its occupant, the undead wizard Cephal Lorentus. This was a hilarious combat. He went first, fireballing the group (for almost no effect) and flying up to the roof. Whereupon he was hit by three dispel magic spells, which hit first his flight, then his fire shield, then his shield. He was stuck in the tar with no chance of getting out, and swiftly perished. There were some really good dispel magic rolls in there!

Ascending to the third level of the spire, the group found a feasthall populated by the dead bodies of a lot of the Varnhold residents (including their leader) and four dread zombie cyclops, which weren’t too much of a threat to this party, especially as the zombies got a total of negative one for their initiative! Slow to act meant swift to die, and the group continued on after ascertaining the identities of the victims.

Above, they discovered a pool inhabited by an evil water elemental. This might have been a greater threat, but the Smite Evil power of the Paizo Paladin that Greg could employ is entirely insane.

From there, the doors led into the final encounter against Vordakai himself. He quickly dominated Tim, which greatly worried the rest of the group, but his first command to have Tim tear Dave’s wizard apart allowed another saving throw from Tim, which he made. Meanwhile, the rest of the group started hitting him with magic – and Greg had smite evil to completely ignore his damage reduction of 15. Vordakai teleported away, and the group pursued him down to his destination chamber. It took them about 6 rounds to get there, and he’d managed to heal about 90 hit points in the meantime; alas, the group were able to get rid of all of that in one round, and soon enough Vordakai lay dead at their feet.

Much treasure was found by them, along with the remaining commoners of Varnhold, held in magical prisons. I explained to the group how they could now annexe Varnhold, and we ended the session with the threat of Vordakai dealt with, the Nomen centaurs willing to sign a peace treaty, and the party’s kingdom expanded to 29 hexes – with another 18 hexes very close to joining them.

The next adventure should start when the group reach 75-80 hexes in their kingdom, so next session will probably consist of a lot of kingdom-building and a little exploration, before we can dive into the events of Blood for Blood.

The characters reached 9th level at the end of this session, and I’ll make sure they hit 10th level by the end of the next session. We’re abstracting out the level-gains to some extent.

The actual dungeon was surprisingly effective and enjoyable for the players; the threats in it felt dangerous, but it was the hazards that required inventive spell-use to get past that were particularly memorable.