Slain by Elf

A few more kobolds and a mystery humanoid are quickly despatched with the help of three separate critical hits. The small, grey humanoid is even carrying a sword in a scabbard, which when drawn turns out to be made of jade. We've found what we are looking for. It's time to bug out.

At least, I think it's time to bug out. We've been blinded, thrown in to wells, and repeatedly stabbed. My two measly healing spells are used and I don't want to risk death just to look for a little more coin. Besides, we have our duty to the society, and that duty is primarily to recover the jade sword to its owner. That's what I want to do.

Both Jake and Kyras want to look for more loot, and they manage to convince Chow that the ruins aren't that dangerous after all. But I'm off. I want to see the ceremonial sword safe and not end up staying in the ruins in the hand of a fresh corpse. I leave the ruins and make my way to a nearby village, where I sup on a latte and wait for my companions to join me.

Chow is rescued from the suicide well and we move on. The next room in the ruins has small, scaly humanoids waiting for us.

'Kobolds!'

But we suppose we don't know what they are, what with us being wet-behind-the-ears pathfinder-wannabes. 'Well, you say kobolds...'

'...I say 'kobbolds'.'

We witness a rare occasion, that of an adventurer complaining of being competent. Then again, it is because a magical compulsion is making Chow jump down a suicide well, and he'd rather not do it quite so effectively.

'He can make an acrobatics check to reduce the damage taken by the fall.'

'He could, but as his aim is to commit suicide I'm not convinced he'd want to try to break his fall. Maybe he can make an acrobatics check to land on his head.'

Birthday gaming, with cake and candles! 'Make a wish', but I don't know what to wish for. 'How about for your character to survive the adventure.'

It's a good idea, and I know wishes are meant to be fantastic, but I'd rather have more chance of it coming true than that. 'After the death of three adventurers last time, if we're going to wish that I think we should mine some jade and carve a sword out of it than try to find the real one.'

'Yeah, we'd be better off becoming male prostitutes and buying one from the two-copper tricks we'd be pulling.' The deaths have us clearly rattled. We have wandered in to the entrance of the ruins and are paralysed by three fearful choices of direction. One room holds a slightly damp patch on a wall, another has webs, and the third has moss. We're dooooooooooooooooomed.

'Let's go through the room with the webs, as that's the only way not leading off the battlemat and we won't have to erase the map.' Thus are so many great adventures begun.

Making our first tentative steps in to the murky ruins, supposedly infested with undead, we encounter not skeletons but a hypnotoad. The hypnotoad's eyes glow with a vicious brightness, hypnotising all but me in the room, Jack the half-orc drunken brute who was rifling through papers in an adjacent room, and Kyras who has been cowering outside.

The Hypnotoad attacks, thinking me to be a bigger threat than my two affected companions, and bites for a chunk of damage that will need more than a bandage to heal. Jack sees the kaleidoscopic light and hears my shriek, and runs in to attack. The half-orc will give the toad a taste of his own medicine, bringing his claws and teeth to bare.

'I get angry! Grr! Claws grow from my fingers! I slash at the hypnotoad! Grr!' It's all fine histrionics, but an unfortunate roll of a natural 1 just means he broke a nail.

Rage building, he slashes at the hypnotoad again. Both claws rip the monster for a total of 23 damage, tearing it in two. It seems a broken nail gets Jack really mad.

We make our way to the ruins to look for the jade katana, and apparently some trade agreements for a slimy proto-capitalist. As we make our way up a steep rocky incline to the ancient entrance to what are now ruins a recently deceased humanoid springs down to the path. It's a ghoul!

As can only be expected when undead are encountered, combat ensues. Chow, our fighter, draws back his weapon to deliver a mighty blow to the monster. Kyras the conjurer sees this and curses. 'Damn. I keep forgetting to use power attack with my eidolon', he says, apparently using a different meaning of 'keep' than is in common use, this being the first round of the first encounter he's been in.

Still, when Chow strikes for an unlucky minimum damage and still drops the ghoul, power attack certainly appears to be a feat worth remembering about.

Tim and Tallis, survivors of the ambush, are joined by Pathfinder society recruits Jack, Kyras, and Chow, and continue with their duties towards the society. Amara Li tasks us with retrieving a ceremonial jade katana from some dangerous and ancient ruins.

'What is a katana?', I ask, not having heard of such an exotic-sounding item before. Not only am I told that it is a kind of sword but I am shown a working steel example.

'And how will we recognise it?', asks Kyras.

'How will we recognise a ceremonial weapon just like this one we've just been shown, but made of distinctive ornamental stone? Oh, I dunno. I tell you what, if we find a dozen jade katanas we'll bring them all back and let Amara pick out hers.'

The barbarous halfling steps over Ghaz's corpse—oops, we're getting ahead of ourselves a little—to attack our fighter. But it seems we really are only getting ahead of ourselves and not making a wicked joke, as the halfling continues his rampage and strikes Omar hard.

I heal the fighter, only to see him hit a second time and drop to the ground. That was the last of my healing spells too, besides the channelling that would simultaneously heal our ambushers. I realise that we're not going to win this fight, so grab the backpack from Omar, with the box inside, and make my escape, slow as a dwarf, through the thankfully obscuring mist.

I decide not to call out my intentions, not being the fastest runner, and hope that my surviving companions will also see the direness of our situation. Taliss and Nibblit see more than that, as they notice my grabbing the backpack and get the hint. Taliss uses his agility to climb up the building on to the roof, and makes his escape that way. Nibblit, on the other hand, has just cast a spell and doesn't have time to react before he's surrounded by the ambushers.

A gnome in a 10-foot corridor, surrounded by enemies, all but left to die. The situation sounds strangely familiar. And, like before, no mercy is given. Nibblit is struck down, but at least his death lets Taliss and me escape the attackers.

Naturally, we're ambushed on our way back with the box. We even duck down a narrow side street to avoid what is an obvious red herring. We wouldn't be 1st-level adventurers otherwise.

An obscuring mist descends upon us, and a rather angry looking halfling scuttles up and starts beating on Ghaz with a small greataxe. I suppose if you want to be hit with any kind of greataxe, small would be a good choice.

The mist provides concealment, giving each attack an inherent chance of missing. The halfing swings at Ghaz, and the GM rolls a D10. 'High is good', he says, and the die settles on a 9.

'Good for who?', asks Ghaz.

'Me.'

'Is that 9 the damage?'

'No, that's the miss chance roll.'

'Good, because I'd be dead if it was!'

'The damage is...' and the GM rolls the D10 a second time, and we all watch as it lands on the 10.

Even though the GM is tickled that the introductory adventure is going to kill a PC, the player of Ghaz isn't quite as thrilled with the prospect. 'Our cleric will heal you', says Nibblit, although I sense a touch of incredulity in his voice, because the cleric would be me. I didn't gain that good a reputation the last time I was a cleric.

'But if he heals me, he'll also heal the devil', says Ghaz, to quizzical looks all around the table.

'I don't have to channel energy. I can heal you personally with my touch.'

'Oh right, you've got spells.' Yeah, and I can see your confusion, as I think cleric healing spells are new to Pathfinder.

And I do just that! I prepare an attack but remember that Ghaz is about to drop, so move in to cast a cure spell. I need to cast one spontaneously, which means sacrificing one of my prepared spells. Now, which to choose. Protection from evil, I think.

'Good choice. There are no evil outsiders here.' But the sarcasm is lost in the stunned silence of my cleric healing another party member without fuss, or being badgered. It'll pass—the silence or the healing, I'm not sure which yet.