Stags and Witches

Two really cool things happened in our game group last week. These things involve spoilers for two Pathfinder Adventure Paths, namely Kingmaker and Reign of Winter. So, be aware of that.

Down with the Stag

My players finished the first book of the six book Kingmaker adventure path, Stolen Land. It's one of my favorite adventures. I love the cast of eclectic outcast NPCs, and I dig the openness of it all.

That's ol' Staggy right there.

Anyways, last session my players took down the Stag Lord, the enigmatic, masked BBEG of the first book. The Stag Lord is all holed-up in his fort of bandits. It's a fight I've always liked (I've ran the adventure twice now, and played it once). The adventure provides you with a bunch of ways to take out the Stag Lord (including one suggestion in the book that the players pose as bandits, bring Staggy some booze, then assassinate him in his sleep). My players ended up going with a pincer movement, with the party's barbarian sneaking over the front gate while the rest of the group drew the bandits to the other side. One player died (RIP Stone the half-orc witch), but they handled it pretty well.

Witches Get Stitches
 
My proudest accomplishment of the last week (whole summer probably) is the completion of Paizo's Baba Yaga adventure path, Reign of Winter. After five months of playing, we finished the last book this week.

Our party at the final fight. Not pictured: human Irish Catholic gunslinging paladin (possible in this Path) and dwarf-turned-goblin fighter.

It was epic. It was fun. The path over all had some cool Russian folklore flavor, mixed with historical fiction and planetary romance. There are some really fun NPCs (like a gentleman troll, a poker-playing demon, and a winter wolf looking for a mate). It gets overly railroaded at points (as many paths do), but there are some moments that give the players some awesome choices--namely, the entire 5th book, which takes place in a sandbox-Russian-prison-camp-dungeon.

Did I mention it takes place in 1918 Russia? Cause it totally does. My witch made it out with a Mosin Nagant sniper rifle.

My witch got some cool boons from Baba Yaga in the end, like the aforementioned gentleman troll, the throne of a nation, and eternal life (NBD). The campaign (and the GM) obviously did something right, because it felt like a major fucking accomplisment.