Kingmaker [Gestalt with some houserules]

[Knives]

I am currently hosting a Kingmaker setting once a week and I figured I'd share what's been going on.
One of the main reasons I am doing this is to "force" me to keep a journal so I can view it in the future and remember what happened. I regret not doing this for some of my other games.

Before we begin, some things to note:

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• This is my first DMing of a 3.5, Kingmaker game and even though I have been playing for years, I am still new at this.
• There are no cross class skill penalties or anything else of that nature. We never play with them.
• I asked players to keep shenanigans to a minimum.
• Certain feats like two weapon fighting and such operate like Snap Kick (-2 to all rolls, get another attack) for simplicity's sake.
• Everyone (including me) abuses the flaw system so I just gave everyone 2 extra feats.
• We play for fun and have different levels of experiences with the system. FUN is top priority.
• As long as the players supply their character information, if I don't have it, they can be that race.

I'll edit this as I remember stuff.

Now on to the players.

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I only have 3 players which is the main reason why Gestalt is perfect. It allows players to be more flexible and not break the game. Hopefully...
Allen - A person familiar with min maxing and tricks to make shenanigans happen and knows the system very well.
Stephen - The old DM. Knows 3.5 just as well as Allen and together the two of them keep me on track with the rules.
Adam - The guy who shows up whenever he wants and does whatever he wants with this character. UNPREDICTABLE AS FUCK.

The Characters each have a background (and one of them is a secret) that, when it is relevant to the game, will be explored

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Felix - A Human ninja illusionist who has taken the nobleborn background.
Sansa - A Half-Elf vitalist summoner with a mysterious past.
Shaggydog - Sansa's Eidolon.
_____ - Adam has not made his character as of this time.

About the scenario:

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The scenario is broken into a nonlinear freeroam game taking place over 5 parts.
In Part 1 the characters are tasked with mapping out a specific area and clearing the bandits plaguing the land. Here they will pave the way for what will soon become their kingdom. All of their actions will affect their future.

More as the story develop.s

Finally as a courtesy to the players and those who have not played Kingmaker before, please DO NOT post any spoilers in this topic.
Everything you will read in this topic is designed for the players in my campaign to be able to read it without being spoiled on anything in the future or things they passed up.

Thanks, and enjoy.

Without further delay, I bring you... Kingmaker.

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The Greenbelt is home to many unknown creatures, its very lands lay unmarked and untraveled. Those who do venture through it are plagued with bandit attacks or worse...

The players have been tasked with mapping this area and reporting their findings if they survive, which is unlikely because nobody so far has. The only thing that is known about the Greenbelt is that there is a trading post owned by a man named Oleg and his wife Svetlanna, they are plagued by Bandit attacks and have requested assistance.

The players each arrived at Oleg's trading post and introduced themselves to him and to each other. Felix is a member of House Surtova (as is the king and most important people in neighboring lands), and Sansa is a mysterious traveler with a strange looking dog.

Oleg explains his situation to the party, how the Bandits demand a tax from him each month, and how they threaten to rape and kill his wife should he ever not pay. He spoke of two bandits who he could only assume were the higher ups, one was an aggressive woman who carried two hatchets and nearly cut off Oleg's arm, the other was a man in a green cloak with a bow carried on his back.

The bandits have demanded the tax thrice before, but each time their numbers decreased. The woman herself only showed up the first time, but the man has been there every time after.

Oleg offered the players all the information he had and promised them free food and bedding whenever they wished if they helped him with the bandit threat plaguing his trading post. Felix and Sansa agreed and decided it would be best to take the bandits by surprise (Due to them being level 1 and having shit for HP I assume).

Felix explained how he could create an illusion of an army to scare the bandits off while Shaggydog moved into flanking position. The two agreed upon this plan and waited until first light, the time when the bandits would arrive.

Come sunrise, four men riding horses could be seen approaching the trading post.
With the gate closed (hiding the army illusion) the men demanded that Oleg  open it. Upon opening the gates, the men soiled their pants immediately when they saw the entire king's army pointing ballistae at them. The men explained how they were just travelers and wanted to take shelter at Oleg's. (Rolled a 28 on their bluff check  ) The party seemed confused at first and would have believed him had Oleg not pointed out that they were in fact the bandits who had robbed him thrice before.

With this new information, the Party acted friendly towards the bandits and slowly approached... TRICKED! The bandit leader was torn to shreds by Shaggydog and the rest of the bandits were put to sleep by Felix (Best low level spell ever?). After Shaggydog had his fill of bandit throat, Oleg hoisted the bodies up onto his walls and rewarded the party. He also bought the bandit's gear because he is a trading post after all.

With the bandits successfully driven off and Oleg's trading post acting as "home base" to the PC's, the exploration of the Greenbelt could truly begin.

For simplicity's sake  it is assumed by me that unless the players say otherwise, they are resting for 8 hours a night. A typical day means venturing from 6AM to 9PM.

Day 1:
The PC's stumbled into a hunter who told them about the amulet Sansa took from the bandits. He mentioned how he's heard rumors of the bandits worshiping some sort of undead god and that his form is similar to that of a stag's.
The players convinced the hunter that if he were to namedrop the PC's at Oleg's the next time he shopped there he would "Be cool and maybe get a discount."

Day 2:
The PC's explored the top left of Oleg's and came up empty handed.

Day 3:
Explored the upper right of Oleg's and stumbled across a Warg that did some nasty damage to Sansa. Lucky for her, Shaggydog and Felix easily killed it and Sansa quickly recovered from her wounds.

Day 4:
Right of Oleg's, the PC;s discovered a strange old man and his hut. He greeted the PC's and accepted them into his home gracious for the company. He spoke of the fabled Tuskgutter and recanted the tales of the teleporting mammoth who could jump over buildings. When all was said and done, the PC's left Bokken, the mad man in the hut, to his potions and left peacefully.

Day 5:
Left of Oleg's. The party came across four Kobolds eating some sort of flower. Felix tried to sneak up on the Kobolds, but they easily heard him and attacked.
The Kobolds were put to sleep by Felix, and that sleep was made permanent due to Shaggydog's teeth.

Day 6:
The party discovered a massive bone graveyard just south of Oleg's and Bokken's and upon seeing the numerous beast carcasses, rethought their situation and decided they would return in the future.

Day 7:
Uneventful day. Explored the top right of the map and found nothing but empty grasslands. The party rested here the night and continued the next day.

Day 8:
Continuing on from the top right of the map the party decided to explore East of Bokken's. Upon doing so the party was ambushed by a Tatzlwyrm who poisoned Felix twice. The Tatzlwyrm and Shaggydog were locked in heavy combat when Felix cleaved the monster in half with his wakizashi.
Felix remembered a wanted poster he saw in Oleg's and decided to take the Tatzlwyrm's head to claim his reward.

That's it for this session.
Don't be sad though, next session is only 14 hours away and I'll try to get the writeup done as soon as I can!

Comments and suggestions are always welcomed.

[Hallack]

Look forward to following this.  I'll be running Kingmaker sometime so insight into others games can be both entertaining and informative.

[Knives]

Last game wasn't too productive because Adam showed up and he had to make his character as well as be introduced to the story.
Not sure if there is going to be a game tomorrow (due to me having to study for my programming finals) but If there is I'll have the last meet up before the end of friday if all goes well and tomorrow's game by the end of the week.

[Knives]

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When we last saw our "heroes" they were wandering around the greenbelt. Well they're gonna be doing that for a while >_>

Day 9:
The party met up with Oleg who bought the tatzylworm's head for 600 gold.
Oleg seemed to have made some additions to his staff since the last time the party saw him.
At the counter, drinking a glass of ale, sat a bear. At least it looks like a bear... Only when it got up and asked for another drink is it revealed that it was actually a man wearing a bear's skin. In addition to him, a strange man(?) seemed to be having an argument with Oleg and his wife Svetlanna. The argument ended rather abruptly once the trading post owners threatened the man with a few crossbows. While the man known as Ed Nedder Eddard stepped outside to cool off, he ran into Sansa and Felix. After some brief introductions they allowed him to join their party and explore the Greenbelt together where the party quickly decided to revisited the boneyard they found several days before.

Upon reentering the boneyard, Shaggydog pointed (or sniffs really) out a trapdoor and the party decided they would sneak down the hole to hopefully get a surprise attack on whatever enemy may be down there.
Felix, not making his climb check, stumbles noisily down the hole and spies two giant spiders that seem to be living there. Alerting his allies, and retreating from the hole, Felix decided that it would be best to not fight them in their home by himself and instead to set a trap for them. Sansa suggested that hey throw burning debris and, without missing a beat, the party was cutting down trees (with hammers) and throwing burning shit down the spiderhole in hopes to smoke them out or hopefully kill them.

Unfortunately for the party, the spiders had a backway out of their nest and successfully ninja'd their way around the party. Felix used this opportunity to show us what he could do when he turned invisible and sneak attacked the spider. Ed finished it off with a rage power attack charge combo. Shaggydog instatnly killed the last spider on a devastatingly powerful charge attack.

The party finished the day by exploring the lower right hex by Bokken's but found nothing.
There's a lot of nothing in part 1...

Day 10.
From now on we decided to lable to coordinates of the Greenbelt map.
I will upload a blank map and scan in the players' maps once they have discovered an area.
I would do it myself, but sometimes the players are mistaken in what is what (as seen with them thinking the spider's lair was tuskgutter's) and if I corrected them it wouldn't be nearly as fun.

Travel the 9 hours to C7.
The party found 2 fae dragons playing in the trees. One of them fell to the ground and shaggydog promptly took it in his mouth and toyed with it. Disgusted, the other faedragon swore at the party and ran away leaving the party.
Back to Oleg's for the night.

Day 11.
On their way to B6 the party came across a pack of wild wolves. The party spent no time whatsoever dispatching and evicerating these wolves. Ed found himself on the ground surrounded by the entire pack, but thanks to his allies, he made it out alive.
With the wolf pack savagely massacred, the party continued on to B6 where they found a vast supply of beartraps. After stepping in several, the party decided it would be best if they lit the whole place on fire. That way they would be able to see all of the traps seeing as there would be no brush for the traps to hide in.
Felix decided it would be a good idea to take the bear traps with him, so after triggering them with a stick, he loaded them up onto his horse and set off for Oleg's the next day.

Day 12.
Back at Oleg's Felix ran into the same hunter from before. He and Sansa offered to sell him the traps at a price of 8 for 10 gold. The hunter accepted thier offer. The party spent the night at Oleg's and in the middle of the night, heard a loud booming voice... "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY FOREST!!!!!!!!!!".

Day 13.
Oleg and the other occupants of the trading post asked the PC's what they knew about the fire in the middle of the night. The PC's lied and said they didn't have anything to do with it and that the forest must have suddenly burst into flames. and off they went to A7. Upon reaching A7 the party decided it would be best to set up camp here for the night instead of continuously going back to Oleg's

Day 14.
Once Ed woke up he felt a sharp pain in his leg. It turned out he stepped in a bear trap that had been placed there the night before. Sansa patched him up right away but the party still found it strange that somebody would set up a bear trap in the middle of their camp... With all their equipment and bear traps collected, the party continued on to A5 where they ran into a strange looking frog with massive tusks.
Felix, using his ninja abilities, once again turned invisible and sneak attacked the frog.

It was at this time when Ed decided that he wanted to keep the frog for a pet. So with Sansa's help, Ed revived the frog (Slurk) and set off to "Raise a frog army to vanquish [his] foes".
Exhausetd from their travels and their encounter, the party decided to spend the night at A5.
Before heading off to bed Felix thought it would be a good idea to set up the bear traps and place the moonradishes he found earlier on them.

Day 15
With nothing in their traps, the party collected their belongings and set off to explore A3.
The party was surprised when they ran into the same hunter they sold the traps to.
They invited him to explore the area and join their camp  for the night.
In the middle of the night, a strange creature was caught screwing with the party's supplies.
It was the fae dragon from before, and though it tried to hide, the hunter caught him and turned him over to the players.

After some... errrr really disgustingly persuasive methods of interrogation, the now one-winged fae dragon escaped thanks to superior invisiblity and the blooddrenched beartrap, containing the remnants of the faedragons wing, could use a proper cleaning.

Day 16.
On to B4.
Ed continues to train his Slurk.
Nothing of interest at B4.

Day 17.
On to C4.
The party discovered a dead trapper covered in logs.
It appears that the trapper was killed by his own trap.
Sansa discovers that the rope holding the trap has been gnawned apart.
After fastening a rope to a nearby tree and climbing down to investigate the body, Ed discovers a masterwork handaxe belonging to the now deceased trapper. The party hoisted the body up out of the ditch and returned it to Oleg's.
Sansa determined that the trapper known as Breeg had been dead for about two weeks.
When asked about the body, Ed lied and told Oleg that he found a silver stag necklace on Breeg's body.
Oleg concluded that Breeg must have joined the bandits.
After a brief funeral, the party spent the night at Oleg's.

Day 18.
B6 (The area where they burnt the forest down)
It has been several days since the forest was burnt down and the party thought now would be as good a time as any to visit the remaining land and explore further.
The party found a massive forest in place of where they thought burned ashes would be.
With no time to be confused, the party was surprised by a massive green figure claiming to be the guardian of the forest.
He asked the PC's to leave, which they did. Quite promptly.

Day 19.
On their way to C3 the party came across a shambling mound.
On their way to C3 the party came across a shambling mound.
After much debate of bailing vs fighting it Ed grew some balls and charged it.
Unfortunately for him, the mound grappled him and began squeezing the life from his body.
Sansa summoned a magma elemental to continuously light the mound on fire, but unknown to the party at the time, the mound had fire resist 10 so it wasn't taking much damage.
Felix contiinued his trend of turning invisible and sneak attacking but was only able to hit the mound once every couple of slashes.
Just when it looked like Ed was going to be crushed between the mound's massive arms, the slurk spat out a slimy substance that allowed Ed to slip free. With his hands free, Ed was able to deliver an impressive series of pickaxes to the face of the shambling mound killing it instantly.
!!!Ed's bond with his animal companion has increased!!!

Day 20.
Back on the path to C3.
The party ran into the hunter again and, after Ed being a total dick to him, learned that he has slain many shambling mounds and is in no way impressed with the Party's last encounter.
When they finished speaking to the hunter, Felix decided that wererats were responsible for gnawing the rope. The party asked the hunter what he knew about Breeg was on its way.

Day 21.
At A1.
Nothing of interest here.
Ed trains his frog still.

Day 22.
At B1 the party discovers a dead body with a green ring, engraved with an eel and a frog tangled with each other, on the side of a hill.
It appears that the rocks fell down and crushed him instantly however Sansa suspects he too was murdered.

[Knives]

Here's the map up to date with part 3.
Part 3 should be up shortly I just need to get the dialogue right.

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[Halinn]

It might not be a bad idea to mark the edges of the forest on the map, since that has an impact on travel speed, and will be relevant later on when they get control of the area.

[Knives]

It might not be a bad idea to mark the edges of the forest on the map, since that has an impact on travel speed, and will be relevant later on when they get control of the area.

That's a good idea. I think the players are doing that now.
Next update was lost in a sea of data so I need to rewrite it...

[Knives]

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Day 23: When we last saw our heroes they were arguing over a magic ring that they found on a dead man. Still trying to complete their mission, the party continued on their way to explore D2, unfortunately for them, there was nothing here.

Day 24: Having rested nearby, the party moved on into D4 where they found a lone pond that the players (and thusly the party) thought was a pond of tripling when Ed's frog (Slurk) jumped in and three emerged. Sansa decided to test out her new ring by going for a swim to see if it was any easier than she previously thought. Meanwhile Ed begins to gain the trust of the frogs by signing a lullaby (Both in character and in real life), and because it was so entertaining to the frogs (AKA me), I allowed the frogs to accompany them as observers until they are trained.

Day 25: The party discovered the remnants of an old abandoned temple. With an impressive display in knowledges, Felix immediately recognized it as being a temple of Erastil, a god who takes the form of an elk. In front of the temple is a small pool filled with murky water. Behind the pool is a set of stairs leading up to a rather large cave. Felix took it upon himself to get ahead of the party and explore this mysterious cave, but as he stepped closer and closer to the cave, a tortured almost human voice emits a soul wrenching roar.

Felix gets ambushed by a Dire Bear and is knocked unconscious before he knew what was happening. Luckily for him Sansa the Vitalist shares his pain and allows Felix to regain his composure but before doing so, he turned invisible in hopes to trick the bear. Felix's invisibility saved him from another set of brutal bear attacks, and it is at this point that Sansa and Ed begin to discuss leaving Felix and retreating as far as possible. With Felix being invisible, the bear decides that it would be best to attack a target he can actually see and goes after shaggydog. Now it is at this point that I should mention that Shaggydog is a little different than when we last saw him. He has two heads. With a critical hit the bear nearly kills and grapples shaggydog, however, unlike with Felix, Shaggydog is an Eidolon and can thusly be dismissed and removed from harm's way quite easily. Ed and Sansa began to retreat while Felix tried to tumble down the stairs away from the bear. Hiding in the nearby rubble, Felix was able to escape from the bear and eventually leave the temple due to the bear not pursuing him outside of the temple's borders. Exhausted, near death, and defeated, the party rested in the middle of the forest just outside the walls of the temple.

Day 26:
Having been defeated at the temple, the party decided that it would be better to continue exploring and return to fight the bear when they have a plan.
Preceding to the right on the map, the party discovered a small bandit camp. Deciding that it would be an excellent idea to infiltrate their ranks and gather information, the party began to argue about what they should wear to avoid suspicion and whether or not the stag medallions should be visible, however, before they could finish yelling at the top of their lungs so that every bandit within a thousand mile radius could hear them, they found themselves surrounded by several bandits and a female bandit wielding two hatchets.

Sansa politely introduced herself to Kressle, who in turn did the same, and instead of a massive brawl of blood and death breaking out, a polite conversation and an exchange of information took its place. The party learned that The Stag Lord was a good for nothing drunk who was never sober. In addition to this, Sansa flashed a mysterious tattoo to Kressle who recognized it instantly and began to change her tone to be more friendly.

In the end the party volunteered information about Oleg's reinforcements and offered to get rid of the Dire Bear in the temple so the bandits could relocate to a more secure area.

Sidenote: Sansa invented a simple explanation for Ed to understand what a "Favor" is. She calls it "Invisible Money" which basically is exactly what a favor is, but is dumbed down enough for Ed to understand.

Day 27: Dire Bear, Take 2.
Upon returning to the temple, and armed with a plan, the party sent Felix ahead to try and sneak up on the dire bear. This didn't turn out so well and the bear let out his hideous roar yet again.

The bear charged Felix at full speed, but Felix prepared for this and created a magical pit in front of him to stop the charge. Unfortunately for Felix, the bear rolled an excellent reflex save and did not fall in. Felix decided it would be better to attack the bear's flatfooted, so he turned invisible and loosed an arrow, unfortunately for him, it fell short.

Meanwhile Sansa hasted the entire party and Shaggydog brutally assaulted the temple guardian using his two vicious pairs of teeth. Ed, Felix, and the bear missed their next attacks, and shaggydog continued the assault. Now on the verge of death, the guardian dealt a painful blow to Shaggydog and grappled him once more.

Sansa was used to this, and just like before, dismissed Shaggydog to avoid the grapple damage. Ed finally connected with his pickaxes and finished off the bear, which turned into an old man before eventually disintegrating and was blown away by the wind.

With the bear dead the party returned to Kressle's camp and informed her of their victory. The bandits thanked the party and began to move into the formerly abandoned temple.

Continuing on their way Eastward, the party found a strange crevice in between two hills. They followed it down to a small room where Ed identified the walls as gold veins.

With their gold mine recorded on their map, the party continued east and slew another shambling mound on the way before stopping for the night.

Day 28.
Now reaching the end of the "map", the party discovered a small tree that looked like it had been struck by lighting. Upon further investigation of the tree Felix discovered a small patch of earth that seemed unsettled. After digging through the earth, Felix found a small cache containing several magic wands, a book of spells, a ring, a cloak, and a masterwork dagger (which Ed stuck to the bad of his frog because... why the fuck not?)

Day 29.
Having traveled back to Oleg's the party sold him what useless items they had. Felix upgraded his sword, and when Ed tried to sell Oleg his slimey dagger for an amount of money that Oleg did not have, the strange man dressed like a bear who sat at the counter got up, argued with Oleg, and bought the dagger from Ed.

Day 30.
While on the way to C11 the party ran into the Hunter from Oleg's. Felix offered the Hunter some moonradishes, which he accepted graciously, and the party continued onwards eventually meeting up with Ed (Who stayed in the Tavern the night before) at D14.

Day 31.
With his original frog fully trained, Ed explained to the party that he would sometimes be with his frogs, teaching them the ways of the wild, than with the party.
On to E13. Bisecting the area was a gigantic river more than 200 feet wide with a burned down Rope Bridge dangling precariously overhead. Ed recanted about the tale of Nettles, a bridge keeper who opposed the Stag Lord and was murdered for it. In the middle of the night the Stag Lord and his men set fire to Nettles' house causing Nettles to flee across the bridge. When Stag Lord lit the bridge on fire it was the end for Nettles. With the Stag Lord's men on either side of the bridge it mattered not where Nettles fled. Fortunately for Nettles (Or unfortunately depending on how you see it) he didn't have to decide which side to flee to because the Stag Lord cut the bridge's support rope and Nettles' aflame lifeless body plunged into the river below.

The first thing the party did when they got to the crossing was... (say it with me) 'alerted the haunting ghost to their presence'. However, this wasn't as bad an idea as others might think. Nettles hated the Stag Lord and told the PC's that if they were to kill Stag Lord, he would give them continued passage across his river whenever they needed it. The party agreed and asked Nettles if he knew where the Stag Lord was based. Nettles only knew that the Stag Lord followed the river to attack him, but with this information, the party was pretty sure they knew where the Stag Lord's camp was (Or at least I think they thought they knew...)

Day 32.
With the party growing closer and closer to the end of the adventure they were running out of "blank spaces" on the map. So naturally they discovered a massive cave system of Kobolds and infiltrated it disguised as a Kobold and his pack of slaves.

Meeting up with the leader of the Kobolds (Sootscales), the party learned that a magical statue had been stolen from the Kobolds and if it wasn't returned to them as soon as possible the Kobolds would begin to die from the wrath of their god. The party agreed to go find it (Or rather, Felix did, the rest were slaves) in the Mite lair where the Kobolds suspected it was.

Day 33.
With the help of the Kobolds, the party easily uncovered the secret entrance to the Old Sycamore tree where the mites lived...

It's time for the continuation of the game AFTER this one, so I don't have time to finish this update before the next one starts.

Look forward to the continuation and possibly conclusion of Part 1 of Kingmaker.

[Billy]

Love the journal so far. Waiting for the next!

[Knives]

Thanks!
Sorry for the long delays between updates.
It's impossible for me to judge how long my programming assignments will take...
We Just finished Act 1 and once everyone finishes building their positional leaders, we will start the intermission before Act 2.

[Knives]

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Day 33 cont:
Upon entering the old Sycamore, the party immediately discovers two mites shooting caltrops into each other’s mouth. Upon seeing the PC's, the Kobolds attack.
With the first mite slain instantly, the surviving one retreated further into the cave in hopes to alert the others.

Following the retreating mite, Felix created an illusionary army in hopes to trick the mites into surrendering. Unfortunately that didn't work out too well.

What did work out though was Felix's other illusion about the cave collapsing. With an impressive bluff check, Felix was able to convince the Mites that they would die if they didn't escape the cave. Unbeknownst to Felix, this cleared out a good majority of the weaker willed mites.

Continuing to make their way through the mite lair, the party's progress was impeded by a massive fissure. Felix decided to go first in navigating the chasm, which would have been a good idea if he didn't accidentally alert the fissure's inhabitant - A giant whiptail centipede.

Rushing to Felix's help, Ed easily climbed down the side of the cliff just in time to see Felix take a crushingly powerful assault from the multilegged monstrosity. His body coursing with venom, Felix found it harder and harder to keep his eyes open. Felix clinging on for dear life saw a two headed dog rip the centipede to shreds. Somehow that gave him the strength to stand up, turn invisible and flee. Having given Felix temporary health, Sansa ordered shaggy dog to continue the assaults. A quick tail slap drops shaggy dog off his feet and just as the centipede coiled back for another attack, Ed's heavy pickaxes tore open the beast's flesh and the guardian of the fissure's lifeless body crashed to the rocky floor.

Sansa had given Felix temporary health, but little by little it began to wear off and Felix returned closer and closer to death. Felix begged Sansa to heal him and after a while she did.

On the other side of the chasm was a small room which the party assumed was their destination. Inside this room was a large spider and a mite rising atop its back.
The mite didn't have time to react. By the time he was aware of his intruders; Ed had already vaulted over the table and jumped in a fit of rage at the spider.
The spider counterattacked and easily brought Ed down to his knees. Shaggy dog and Sansa attacked the spider to draw it's attention while Felix repositioned himself. Ed continued to fail his stabilize rolls while his slurk retaliated in a protective fury. The slurk finished off the Ogre spider and with Sansa's ability to steal health from the frightened mites, Ed was soon back up to full health, as was Felix. After grabbing what they sought, the party killed off any remaining mites and left the dungeon.

Returning to the kobold's camp, the party delivered the statue to its rightful place. However, Tartuk, the rogue kobold who manipulated the others with promises of magic, attacks the party and demands that the kobolds do the same. With the statue returned though, Sootscale no longer fears the curse of Tartuk's god, and instead joins the party in slaying Tartuk.

Thanks to Felix's Island of Blades, Sootscales killed Tartuk with a deadly sneakattack and claimed freedom for himself and his clan. With the eternal gratitude of an entire kobold clan, the party departed and continued mapping the greenbelt.

Day 34:
The party discovers a burned down bridge and uses it to cross the surprisingly large river.

Day 35:
Finally, the party discovered the bandit's main camp. Using the passcode learned from Kressle, the party easily infiltrated the camp and began to explore.
After a while the party remembered (realized) that they had no plan whatsoever and decided it would be best to observe the bandits and find an opportunity to strike.

After a while Kressle and her squad delivered the stag lord's wine and the party took the advantage. Communicating with Kressle via doubletalk but Kressle notices the third in command bandit (Novan) was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. Luckily, Sansa was able to change the conversation to that of a telepathic one.

Having learned about the three main bandit commanders: Auchs a large, yet stupid, powerhouse. Dovan, an devilishly beautiful dark elf wielding a rapier. And Akiros, a mysterious fighter who personally guards the Stag Lord, the party was ready to make its move.

Felix conjures up a fake wine case and infiltrates the Stag Lord's private quarters. Akiros, guarding the Stag Lord's bedchamber, tells Felix to deliver the barrel to the storage down the stairs. Complying, Felix learns of an old man who lives in the cellar from Akiros and concludes that this man is the Stag Lord's father.

Once the camp was mostly asleep, the party buffed themselves and entered the Stag Lord's quarters yet again. Akiros knew what was going on and saw this as his chance to defeat the Stag Lord once and for all.

Opening the door, Akiros and the party were finally face to face with the Stag Lord. There was no time for talk. Felix charged and used a poison to hinder the Stag Lord's dexterity. Meanwhile shaggy dog and Akiros surrounded the Stag Lord and each dealt painful attacks.

The Stag Lord called upon his Deity's power and dealt a crushing blow to Felix. Still standing, and seeking revenge, Felix scored a critical hit in his flurry of slashes and the Stag Lord's head was flawlessly removed from his shoulders.

When the party and Akiros left the Stag Lord's chambers they were assaulted by a hail of arrows from the second story. Although most bandits were loyal to Akiros, Dovan and Auchs managed to rally up a handful of bandits to aid them in their attempted revenge on their lord.

Luckily, or unluckily depending on whose side you were on, Shaggydog's newly grown(?) wings allowed him to easily attack anyone within the stronghold's walls. Felix summons a swarm of monkeys (yes, you read that right) that saps away Auch's con before effectively killing him. Novan managed to release the trapped Owl Bear and is using it to flank the party. Thanks to Felix's dodge chance he managed to go toe to toe with the owl bear and eventually emerge victorious.

Dovan was nowhere to be found. He was quite literally eaten by Shaggydog. With only one innocent bystander killed (The monkey swam fell on him through the cracks in the second floor) Felix and Sansa successfully defeated the Stag Lord and gained the trust of Akiros. Unfortunately, not everyone escaped with their life. Kressle, the bandit whom the players helped earlier by clearing out the ruined temple, lay dead on the floor, her throat opened by Novan’s blade. Seeing the Stag Lord's helmet on the ground was too tempting for Sansa to pass up, donning the bloody helmet, Sansa crowned herself the new lord of the bandits.

After clearing up some loose ends, such as murdering the Stag Lord's father in the basement, the party said good bye to Akiros, promising to call upon him if they ever needed help, and set forth to complete their exploration of the lands.

Day 41:
Lots of nothing out there in them lands. The party explored a week's worth of land.

Day 42:
Nothing here but a thicket of bushes that the party refused to enter however, Felix made a new friend when he discovered a Thylacine and offered it food. With an impressive roll on diplomacy and animal handling, Felix welcomed the friendly animal into his heart.

Day 43:
With the completion of the charter growing nearer and nearer the party thought it was be a good idea to massacre a helpless Tatzleworm couple on their honeymoon at a nearby river bank.

Day 44:
A dead unicorn lay across the forest’s floor. Unable to revive it, Sansa tried to skin it but her blade was not sharp enough to deprive the majestic animal of its flesh.

Day 45:
The party discovered a statue of Erastil.
They were unable to discover all the awesome magical properties though so they left empty-handed.

Day 46:
With only 2 undiscovered hexes left the party ran into a strange creature and his slurk.
It wasn't Ed though, in fact it had even less intelligence than Ed and only seemed to know a handful of words in common. With the communication gap so large, the party saw no reason to spill this outcast's blood and left him with his Slurk in his ruined temple.

Day 47:
Finally the party explored the last piece of land, Tuskgutter's lair. Several weeks ago Felix promised to return tuskgutter's head to Oleg to complete a request on the job board. With tuskgutter nowhere in sight the party decided to set up bear traps and ambush him when he returned. 4 hours passed before tuskgutter's roar shook the very trees that Sansa and Shaggydog were hiding in, and when tuskgutter entered his cave, he triggered both bear traps that Felix set up.

Tuskgutter spotted Felix's Thylacine and gored it using his massive tusks. Felix unleashed a flurry of quick slashes, but due to tuskgutter's natural armor, missed all but one of them. Sansa repeated her strategy of hasting everybody and giving Shaggydog temporary health while Shaggydog and tuskgutter traded blow for blow. Eventually Felix and Shaggydog bring tuskgutter's scarred remains to Oleg who praises them for defeating the scourge of the forest.

As the party entered the sitting area of Oleg's to decide what to do next, a mysterious and beautiful woman approached them. She introduced herself as an envoy from Brevoy and informed the party that the Swordlords were quite pleased with their competition of the charter. So much in fact they bestowed upon the party an honor that not many in the nearby lands had earned: The right to build a kingdom in the name of Brevoy.

******ACT 1 OF KINGMAKER COMPLETE*******

Note from the DM:
Thanks for keeping with us these past weeks as we ran kingmaker. I know that I had large gaps and inconsistencies in my updates, but I hope that you were able to enjoy my campaign write-up despite that.

Act 2 is all about building a city and eventually a kingdom.
I have asked the players to write up any characters they wish to occupy their city and told them I would fill any voids in their assignments.
I'm actually on my way to the first meeting of Act 2 right now but don't expect an update until the end of the week or later because I have a ton of homework I need to do for my programming classes.

Look forward to Act 2: The Rivers Run Red!

[Halinn]

Sounds like you had some interesting sessions. Seems quite different from when I played through it

I suggest you do take some time to do longer kingdom-building turns, like a year or so at a time. Until quite late, the kingdom in my group just felt... lacking, because our GM had skipped past some of the recommended kingdom breaks in the adventure path.

[Knives]

Gonna have to put this on a short hiatus until my work load cools down.
The quarter ends in 5 weeks so hopefully we'll be back to playing by then.