First Time Running: Pathfinder 2e Remaster Beginner Box

I've been playing Pathfinder 2e since shortly after it first released, but not felt any particular urge to run it until I got invited to play the Beginner Box adventure, Menace Under Otari, in a streamed game. After a couple of weeks of playing with some complete beginners it dawned on me that I actually know the rules of PF2 reasonably well, and between that and around 15 years of GMing experience, there was no reason I couldn't give it a go myself.

I kicked off with one of the pre-remaster Free RPG Day adventures, A Fistful Of Flowers, an adorable one-shot about a group of leshies out searching for some missing members of their community. That went OK, so I decided to dive in, pick up my own copy of the Beginner Box, and run the adventure at MK-RPG.

What's In The Box?

You get a lot for your money in the box. The two softcover rulebooks cover a lot in a small space.

The hero's handbook has all the basic rules you need for getting started, plus a guide to character creation. This is all heavily cut down from the core rules - the only classes are fighter, rogue, wizard and cleric, and only go up to level 3, while the ancestries include human, elf and dwarf. The actual character creation rules are somewhat altered. While it's possible, using the core rules, to make a character who's completely useless at their key abilities by making really stupid choices, these cut down rules ensure that you get a character with at least a +3 modifier in their class stat who's going to be generally competent at what they do.

Not that you need to use these rules, as there are also pre-made characters in the box - level 1 versions of Valeros the fighter, Merisiel the rogue, Ezren the wizard and Kyra the cleric. These custom character sheets have an additional sheet to explain what everything means, with letter codes for easy reference, have a picture of the arrow symbols PF2 uses to tell you how many actions something takes, and a colour picture of the different dice, which corresponds to the colours of the dice set that's also in the box.

Then there's the reference card. This sums up how dice rolls work, gives you a list of the most common actions like Strike and Stride with their action costs, and has a section to put action and reaction tokens for an easy way to keep track of what you've used on your turn. On the back are descriptions of some of the most common conditions. In short, a handy quick reference of the stuff you need most often without having to hand the book around.

The GM's guide has the adventure Menace Under Otari, as well as some solid advice on GMing generally and how to make your own adventures, and a selection of low level monsters and magic items suitable for level 1-3 characters. It also recommends Troubles In Otari, a set of adventures that directly follow on from Menace Under Otari and should be playable with just the beginner box rulebooks.

There's a set of punched cardboard sheets, which have the aforementioned action and reaction tokens, along with character and monster pawns (plus the little plastic stands to make them stand upright on the battle board). The four iconics are there, plus various ancestry/class combinations for people who chose to use the character creation rules instead, all the monsters you need to run Menace Under Otari and all the other monsters mentioned in the GM's guide. Where there are multiples of the same monster (such as goblins and kobolds) each one has a coloured mark so you can easily keep track of which is which in a fight.

Finally there's a flip-mat, one of Pathfinder's folding battle boards, depicting the Menace Under Otari dungeon. In short, everything I needed to run this adventure was included. I added just two things - a GM screen, and a print-out of the guide to levelling up to level 2 for each character, as we were on a time limit and wanted everyone to be able to level simultaneously and not have to pass the book around.

Running The Game

I was able to get four players for the game. One was my husband who's also experienced in PF2. The others had all played various versions of D&D before but were all new to PF2. With all the basics laid out on the character sheets and the reference cards, I didn't have much explaining to do, and we were able to dive in pretty quick.

The adventure is a fun dungeon crawl in its own right, but where it really shines is in the way it teaches the rules. The first fight is just a straight up fight - nothing special, just a chance to use those Stride, Strike and Cast A Spell actions and get the feel of how the system works. Then comes a skill challenge, where we dig a little into the actions associated with each skill and learn how using equipment can sometimes affect difficulty classes. Each new fight introduces a new concept: conditions, enemies with resistances and weaknesses, enemies who use tactics, etc. and a variety of traps, puzzles and other curios round things out nicely.

By the end of the adventure, the players had a solid grasp on how PF2 works, and I'm pretty sure 2/3 of the new players were sold on the system (the other seemed to be firmly in the 'D&D 5e is the best game ever' camp, but at least he gave it a go.) Just as importantly, the gradual introduction of new mechanics meant that I also learned as we played. The adventure spells everything out very clearly, advising on how certain monsters will use their special abilities. While it can't possibly account for everything players might do, there were only a few moments when I found myself having to think on my feet to come up with a ruling for unusually creative actions.

And by the end we were getting some really fun moments facilitated by the rules. It was great to see effective use of Demoralise to frighten a boss monster, Reposition to throw an enemy off a cliff, and much to my surprise, Deception (plus a magic item) to disguise the fighter as the dead boss monster, leading to a fight with an enemy who literally didn't see them coming.

Having completed this adventure I feel confident in my ability to run PF2, and am thoroughly looking forward to running more of it, both my own adventures and published material.

In short, job done.

Ylva Talks to the Faires, part 14: Endgame

Hello, little ones.  I'm back.  For good this time.

We had to stop the wendigo.  It was the only way.  So with some careful planning to make sure we didn't end up running away in the middle of things, we headed for the heart of the forest.

The hobgoblin settlement was devastated.  Most of the bodies we found were elderly or children, with expressions of terror on their faces, although some looked like they'd been stamped on with iron boots.  It wasn't long before we found the redcaps, now living inside the hobgoblins' old hall.

I went in first to talk to them.  Yes, I know they're horrible, but they're still fey, and we had quite a nice talk really.  Yes, they were eating hobgoblins, and before you ask, I didn't eat any.

They told us about something that had been going around sucking people's brains out, and showed us one of its victims.  It was horrible.  It was obvious we were going to have to deal with this before we could take on the wendigo.  Even if there wasn't the risk of surprise brain sucking in the middle of the fight, it wasn't right to leave it preying on the redcaps.

I don't know what it was.  I didn't even get a good look at it.  I just saw Vared fighting with something invisible.  I enlarged Turgut and summoned a unicorn, as it would be able to smell where the creature was, but it didn't help much in the end.  The others destroyed the creature - some kind of glabrous sloth - and I had the unicorn cast its healing magic on Vared and Aunold.

Then Aunold made a suggestion.  We'd cast several spells in that fight that were still working.  Should we take the fight to the wendigo now?

I climbed on the unicorn's back, after casting fly to make sure I wouldn't fall if I failed at riding, and we went into the cave.  It's strange, but I felt sorry for it, seeing it lying there.  So cold, and hungry, and alone.  I wish there had been another way.  But I'm sure that's just wishful thinking.

Aunold and I flew up to rain down fireballs while Turgut and Vared took the fight to it.  It summoned some kind of earth monsters while the unicorn charged in.  We had remembered its weaknesses, and between the fireballs and Turgut's axe, we were weakening it.  We lost the unicorn to one of the fireballs, and the earth monsters were proving hard to damage, but I was feeling optimistic.

And then it suddenly leapt into the air, flew outside, and turned into something so monstrously huge we could see nothing but its face through the mouth of the cave.  As we continued to battle the earth monsters, a sudden wave of necromancy swept across us, draining the moisture out of us.  Poor Mittens.  Aunold's little bird died too.  Another attack like that would have killed us all.

I knew we'd hurt it badly, and I wondered if another fireball might be enough to stop it.  But before I could try, Aunold flew up to it holding his staff of power and broke it over his head.

For a few moments I was blinded by the sudden flash of light.  And when it cleared, the wendigo was gone.  So was Aunold.  When I looked back to the others I saw Turgut collapse, his obligation now complete.

We didn't fail.  But that's not a price I wanted to pay.

I summoned another unicorn to heal Vared and myself, and then hugged it until it had to leave.  Vared collected up all the valuables from the cave, and then we came home.  Everything seems to be settling down.  The hobgoblin leader lost his powers when the wendigo died, so the Gallians have defeated his army and gone home.  With Turgut gone, I've been made Khan.  I've asked Tonk to write some songs about Aunold and Turgut so everyone will remember what they did.  And I've heard from Taint that there is chaos in the heavens but that Aunold has taken his place amongst the gods.

All I ever wanted was my home in the Greenwood.  But I was born from the blood of the bear and the blood of the forest, and this is where my path has been leading me.  This is where I belong.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 13: A Narrow Escape

That could have gone better.

Things are fairly peaceful in the Greenwood right now.  Turgut is officially the leader of all the tribes.  We still have our agreement with Gallia though, and the enchantress showed up to talk to us.  Lord Vexil has gone mad.  We explained something of what had happened with the White Witch of Gallia, but not really understanding what happened myself, I don't think it was a very clear explanation.

Some of the forest fae also showed up, to warn us that some redcaps had now gone to join up with the wendigo.  At some point we would have to deal with them, but that didn't necessarily mean having to fight them.  I don't want to fight my own people.

We came up with a plan where we would hide our tribes' forces and lure the hobgoblins into an ambush, while the enchantress arranged for a distraction at the walls of Gallia, and we would sneak in and try to deal with their leadership.

Well, we tried.

We got in without attracting attention, following Vared's lead.  I enlarged Turgut and we went in to fight.  We were up against a formidable enemy - the lead hobgoblin and his pet wolf, the lesser wendigo, and some kind of devil.  Yes, a very impressive beard, and he stuck it right into Aunold.

What happened?  Well, the wolf got blown up by Aunold's first fireball.  Turgut took on the lesser wendigo, and a joint effort between Aunold, Vared and me dealt with the devil.  But the hobgoblin leader was horrific.  He managed to knock out Vared just with the power of his words.  And he almost killed all the rest of us with some kind of necromancy.  Aunold was taken down, and the only reason I survived was because I was just outside the spell's range.  Turgut, being undead, was healed rather than injured by the spell.

I ran.  Or rather, I flew, shouting to Turgut to run away.  We were in no state to fight this creature.  We got Vared and Aunold back, with some help from the enchantress.  Now we have to decide what to do next.  The hobgoblin siege will hopefully be broken with our tribes' help, even with their leader still alive.  But there is still the wendigo.

I know, you want me to be the leader.  The child of the forest.  It's not what I sought out, but if we are able to fight the wendigo then Turgut's obligation will be complete and he will be no more.  Someone has to step up then, and I will not say no to you.  But that will only happen if we succeed where our ancestors failed.  I don't know if I'm ready for any of this.  But I have to try.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 12: Giants

It has been nice being back in the forest, even with everything we've had to deal with.

Once Aunold had stopped being a squirrel we had to decide what to do next.  Our own people were safe from the undead threat, but there were still the giants attacking the Blood Druids, the hobgoblins attacking Gallia, the sea devils attacking the port, and of course the White Witch of Gallia and the ongoing threat of the wendigo.

We concluded that while the Blood Druids were our enemy, they were our enemy, and we didn't want them to lose, especially not now that we'd heard that Taint had survived being nailed to a tree and had become their religious leader.

No, I don't know what happened to the tree, but I doubt it came out of the experience intact.

We headed for the giant's camp, and Aunold and me put on our cloaks and flew over to scout.  Quite a lot of them weren't actually giants.  If we called on the remains of our tribe, they would be well able to handle the smaller threats while we took on the leader and his fellow giants.

We began in our usual style, with Aunold and me sending in some fireballs.  I summoned a flytrap to provide Turgut with some melee backup.  And it would have all gone smoothly if the leader hadn't turned out to be some kind of shaman like Aunold.  Fighting someone who couldn't be hurt by spells was quite a challenge.  The invisible wall he put up wasn't helpful either.  All in all it was quite an embarrassing fight.

It would have been more embarrassing if we'd lost, of course.  Once you've won it's much easier to triumphantly appear on top of a hill and declare your magnificent victory.

The White Witch showed up again afterwards, apparently not unhappy with us.  It probably helped that certain people shut up and let me do the talking, of course.  I seem to have a little of the fairy charm that my tribespeople lack.  I still don't really understand what her plan was, and why it involved quite so many armies and manipulating people into fighting them, but she has promised to release her control over Lord Vexil.  Whether that turns out to be a good thing I couldn't start to guess.

Then she turned into a silver dragon, which by this point didn't really surprise me at all.

I think we're going to help the Gallians next.  We have an agreement, after all.

I really hope this isn't what the wendigo wants.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 11: A Second Chance

Hello, little ones.  It's good to be back in the forest.

We went back to the enchantress's home once we'd recovered a little from the encounter at the bothy.  Vared and Aunold made magic cloaks for us.  We got a lot of messages over the next few days, and all of them were terrible.  Sea devils coming to shore at the iron docks.  Hobgoblins marching on Gallia.  An army of the undead approaching the Greenwood from one side, and a horde of giants and dragons attacking from the other.  And of course, the wendigo.

Taint left for the north, muttering about mountains and bear hearts, with Tonk following to keep an eye on him.  We discussed where the rest of us were going to go, but there was only one place I wanted to be and that's home.

So we left Gallia for the Greenwood, avoiding the hobgoblin army, and went back to the Winter Bears where we belong.  The Elthani are with us, and the Blood Druids are to the north, taking on the giants and dragons with support from Tonk and Taint.  We went to take on the undead.

Aunold and me can both fly now, and the new cloaks let us turn invisible, so we went to scout ahead.  Most of the army were mindless undead, but they did have a commander.  One we'd seen before.  One I knew all too intimately.

We came up with a plan and it wasn't a very good one, as we soon realised.  Aunold's bird drew away the mindless undead for us, and we were able to get to his two zombie guards and the helmet that he was currently possessing.  We sent in the usual fireballs to cut down the guards, but before we could smash the helmet and bring him out into the sunlight, he possessed Vared again.

Another awful fight followed, as I tried to give Vared the strength to drive the thing out and the others did what they could to restrain him.  I didn't dare come close for fear that he'd possess me again and turn my power against my friends.

But at last Vared was unconscious, and the ghost jumped from him into Turgut's sword.  We smashed into fragments and the ghost emerged, paralysed in the sunlight.  I summoned a unicorn, and the blessed creature was able to not only destroy the ghost but to heal mine and Vared's wounds.  Since his transformation, there was nothing it could do for Turgut, but Aunold has the magic to repair him now.

We have lost a powerful item in Turgut's sword, but we all agreed it was worth it to destroy that monster once and for all.

His destruction brought the attention of his master, who came to visit us.  She calls herself Eloise Vexil, but we are calling her the White Witch.  Yes, I am a witch, but I see myself more as a green witch, especially with this new cloak.  And she wears white.  Very impractical for forests.  But that's not my point.

She wants to rule Gallia.  I have no doubt that she can do it, even against the wishes of the Enchantress.  She seems inclined to leave the Greenwood alone, providing we don't interfere.  A tempting offer, aside from the fact that we would have to break an agreement with the Gallians.  I talked to her about the wendigo.  If I could persuade her to take it on then perhaps we would be rid of at least one problem.  But I don't think that is going to save us.

She also turned Aunold into a squirrel, but I think it's wearing off.

I don't know what to do, little ones.  Everything is too big.  It would be easy to take the White Witch's offer but I don't think it would do us any favours in the long run.  Somehow we have to do the right thing.  I wish I knew what that was.

A Dark Path

D&D and its sibling game Pathfinder are, basically, heroic fantasy games.  They're not the games I would instinctively look at for running a dark fantasy campaign.  I'd be going for something like Warhammer Fantasy Role Play, or maybe one of the newer arrivals like Symbaroum.  But that doesn't mean you can't use them for dark fantasy.

Our current Pathfinder campaign is doing it pretty well.  Here's what I think is making it work.

1. Player buy-in

This is absolutely crucial.  If you've been following my game write-ups you might have noticed that the characters created by the Thursday group can be a bit...wacky.  However, with this game the GM was up front that he wanted to run a dark and gritty game and we've made characters to fit in with that.

2. The right setting

There's nothing wrong with the nice temperate biome where Standard Fantasyland appears to exist, but things just don't feel that dark when you've got the glory of Fantasy New Zealand spread out in front of you.

Our current campaign takes place in a region that's a mix of boreal forest and tundra.  The cold is constant, and snow can be as big a threat as any monster - bigger, even, because you can shoot a wolf but you can't kill the weather.  Our people are foragers, and we value the Greenwood where we make our home as much as any god.

This doesn't come up much from a mechanical point of view.  Our characters are mostly human, all from the same tribe, and know how to survive in harsh conditions.  Only in extreme circumstances are we making rolls for survival.  But the narrative threat of freezing or starving is constantly there.

3. A formidable threat

Death isn't scary.  Death is an inherent part of Pathfinder.  Characters die, you make a new one and carry on.

You know what's scary?  A monster you can't fight.

As the saying goes, if it has stats you can kill it.  But at the level this thing is at, we might as well be up against Cthulhu, and anyway, being killed by it is the least of our concerns.  What matters is the corrupting effect it's having on the inhabitants of the Greenwood.

War is threatened from multiple sides, and if it happens it will be devastating.  Our homelands ravaged, our way of life destroyed.  Entire tribes, including our own, could be completely wiped out.  One of the city lords is pushing for war, and right now he's winning.  Killing him won't help - at best someone else will take his place, and at worst we'll be blamed and the war will happen faster and be our fault.  When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die, but he's a master player and we don't even know the rules.  How in the world are we going to stop him?

We might be amazing at taking down appropriately levelled monsters, but in the face of the current situation we are small and weak.

4. Loss of control.

Characters are very accustomed to having their bodies damaged.  The same can't be said for their minds.  It's one thing to fight a monster, but quite another when the monster is possessing you and forcing you to hurt your friends and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

We encountered some kind of ghost that was able to possess one of us and take control.  I'm not sure who had it worse; the one who critcally failed and could only watch helplessly as the ghost puppeted their body around, or the one who merely failed and could fight back each round - but still failed every time.

We all lived.  But that came at a price.

Losing hit points isn't scary.  Helplessness is.  Whether on the small scale, with the ghostly possession, or on the large scale with the monster we can't fight and the politics we can't stop.  This Pathfinder campaign is darker than any game of WFRP I've played, because between the players and the GM, we're playing it that way.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 10: Scary Bothy

Come close, little ones.  I don't feel well.

I refreshed my memory on remorhazes, and we decided we weren't quite ready to take it on yet.  We did have an idea where I could try charming it, then use my conversational skills to convince it to go away, but unfortunately they only speak jotun, and while Aunold is good at learning new languages, I just don't have the knack.

So we took a short break at the enchantress's mansion.  Vared made some magic things in her lab, while I decided to immerse myself in magic and see if any new spells showed up.  I can create stinking clouds now.  No!  Why would I do that?  That would be rude.

Then we headed for the port, since we'd heard there was more trouble going on there.  Lord Vexil wants to build some warships, and I thought that having him sail off somewhere in a warship would be quite a good thing since it's not like you can sail a boat into the Greenwood.  They were glad to see us when we got there, as apparently they had an undead problem.  We agreed to try to sort it out.

Ironic, really.

We followed tracks through the tundra, until we spotted a bothy.  Normally bothies are quite welcoming, but this one wasn't.  I felt quite scared just going near it, and Vared wouldn't approach it at all.  But we were definitely in the right place, and I could see tracks that told me the place was in regular use.  So we decided to wait and see who showed up.

I turned into a tree, and the others hid in my branches until someone showed.  Two men, and two large zombies.  Vared and Turgut approached them.  Aunold and me hung back.  Oh yes, I did stop being a tree.  We both flung fireballs.  One of the men opened some kind of doorway and disappeared.  Vared and Turget engaged with the others.

It didn't go well.  We dropped a couple more fireballs, but they were still there.  The man cast a spell to blind Turgut.  I sent in a gremlin to help out, and the giant zombies were dealt with, but the other man disappeared.  Vared started running away from the fight, and we realised that he'd been possessed.

I tried to fascinate everyone, to calm everything down until we could figure out the best thing to do.  But it didn't work on Vared, and moments later I felt my mind being invaded.

He used my gremlin to attack Turgut, who could hardly fight back while both blind and attempting to restrain me, until he lay bleeding on the ground.  I fought back as he tried to take control of my arms, but he was too strong for me and I could only watch as he used me to fire lightning bolts at Aunold and Vared.

It was a relief when Vared's arrows and Aunold's spells finally connected and I slipped into unconsiousness.  I didn't expect to wake up again.  Killing me would have driven out the phantom.  But Aunold found another way.

A while ago in the Greenwood we'd found a barrow, occupied by a barrow wight who'd been tasked with a responsibility.  Turgut agreed to take on that responsibility so that he could rest at last.

So Aunold killed Turgut, who rose again as a barrow wight.  And his presence was enough to convince the phantom to leave.

I feel sick.  This is all my fault.  If I'd been just a bit stronger I could have kept him out of my head.  Now I've hurt my friends and Turgut...

Thank you, Mittens.  It helps.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 9: White Wedding

We didn't fight the remorhaz in the end.  We left Tonk and Taint to keep an eye on things, and the enchantress teleported the rest of us back into the city for the wedding.

I got given all these flowers to wear.  They're lovely, aren't they?  Although they won't last long.  And I got a little gift bag with some strange sweets inside.  Some people got better gift bags though, with silver rings inside.  Aunold and me checked one out, and it was definitely magic.  Abduration, so probably some kind of protection.  We assumed we would find out what soon enough.

The bride and groom appeared, but didn't touch each other.  They didn't even kiss, which seemed odd for a wedding.  We started up a chant in the crowd, but couldn't persuade them.  We weren't surprised when we found out that it wasn't them at all, but a projection of them.  The actual bride and groom were still inside the brothel.

So definitely a witch.

Then these two dragons showed up, both about the size of a horse, and froze everything.  Lots of people died, although not the people wearing the silver rings so they must have been for protection from cold.  We could use a few of those on winter nights, although they don't seem to be very well made and probably won't last to the next day.

Aunold and me tried to save people by herding them into the brothel, and while the guards were reluctant, we did manage to save some of them while Turgut and Vared killed the dragons (which may have actually been frost drakes, now I come to think of it - not enough legs.)

Amazingly enough, the drakes managed to kill just enough members of the city council for Lord Vexil to be able to be in control.  This seems like a terrible way to run anything, let alone a city.  But I don't understand how it works.  Lord Vexil is also claiming that Ralsoth the warlord is massing an army to march on Gallia, which we're pretty certain is not the case.  What would we want with this stupid city when we have the Greenwood?  But then, maybe Lord Vexil wants the Greenwood?

All this politics stuff is making my head hurt, especially since it's all being talked about in Common, which I've only just learned to speak.  At least Mittens understands me.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 8: The Heartbreak of Remorhaz

It...wasn't so bad.  I sent a lightning bolt through two hobgoblins and the lesser wendigo. That and Aunold's fireball meant the others had little difficulty taking down the hobgoblins.  Even my little sprite managed to help.  We didn't get the wendigo though.  It disappeared, and Aunold said it ran away.

We're still not sure what to do with the wendigo, but we might be able to transfer some of its power into magic items.  That's what our ancestors were trying to do, but didn't do well enough.  We have to succeed where they failed.

We thought about going to Tonk's home on the Isle of Dreams in the hope of having visions, but that would mean a trip across the sea in treacherous waters, or else a walk across thin ice.  So first we decided to visit Gallia again.

There's so much going on here.  I can hardly take it all in.  There's talk that the warlord is leading an army towards Gallia, which we're sure isn't true.  Lord Vexil is getting married.  There's a plague of the undead.  And the Enchantress had to leave an important meeting because her people were being attacked by a manticore, although now we're actually at the enchantress's house, she says it's not a manticore but a remorhaz.  Both ridiculous looking creatures...yes, I know, you have the back end of a grasshopper, but at least your bum isn't on fire.

I'm sure there's something suspicious going on with the wedding.  It all seems far too complicated.  From what little we know of Lord Vexil, he doesn't seem the type to marry a commoner, so I think his bride is secretly a witch.  Yes, I am a witch.  So I should know.  And doesn't Mittens look lovely in her new hat?

We dealt with the enchantress's ghost problem, although it hurt me badly and nearly killed Turgut.  I was afraid we might have to kill him too, but we finished off the ghosts just in time.  We hoped that we might be able to deal with the remorhaz the same night, but with the state Turgut is in that's not going to happen.  We all need rest.  We'll just have to hope we can find it in the morning with enough time left over to get back into town for the wedding.

Something stinks in this town.  I wish I was back in the Greenwood, but the only way we can keep the Greenwood safe is to stop the wendigo.  And right now it seems the best place we can be is here.  Stay with me, little ones.  The ghost hurt me.  I need to remember my home.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 7: Dream Guided

A slight gap as I had to miss a session.  We pick up as the PCs are heading, as so often happens in RPG towns, into the sewers.

Towns are very unhygienic.  Why would you build special tunnels just for poo?

We met some Blood Druids, hiding behind an illusionary wall.  There was nearly a fight, but they wanted to talk, so I let the fairy I summoned go without causing any dance parties, and we had a conversation instead.  They said the leaders of the Blood Druids had gone insane.  Not in a cannibalism type of way, but they were so desperate for a new king they were trying to put everyone through the ritual to determine whether someone was fit to be king.  Since that involved nailing people to trees, they'd decided they'd rather leave.

Yes, quite understandable.  And the time I've spent studying the common language has paid off.  I can mostly understand the cloth wearers when they talk now.

The Blood Druids we'd just met had been hired to smash the library windows and then set fire to it.  So we hired them not to, and then we all went to see the enchantress again.

Something strange had happened at her house.  It was all black inside.  The guard was very confused.  Something wasn't working.  I asked Mittens to fly up and have a look through the windows, but she said it was all black in there too.

Some of the others went inside, and found themselves in a huge featureless black space.  I stayed outside with Tonk.  After a while the blackness disappeared, along with our friends, and the enchantress showed up.  It was all very confusing, but she did bring them back again.

The others explained what we knew, and then we headed back out of the city, with the newly renamed Blood Bears in tow, because Tonk had had a dream about where she came from and wanted to talk to the elf in the dream.  We met him at the meeting place and learned that her dream had been true.  She had come from the Isle of Dreams on a boat.  Most of the gnomes had died, but someone had carried her through the snow until he died too.  And then the elf had found her.

It is good to know where you came from.  I feel more at peace since meeting my mother, even in all this confusion.  And we have had a lot of strange dreams recently.  I dreamed about a hobgoblin giving a very inspirational speech, and so did the others, except for Aunold.  He had a dream about hobgoblins gassing us all, so we made some masks to keep ourselves safe.

We went to the big meeting place.  Everyone was there - all the tribes, and the hobgoblins.  We showed the other Winter Bears and the people we knew in the other tribes how to make the masks.  Somehow Taint ended up offering to be nailed to a tree.  It was either that or get pushed off a mountain, I think.  His dreams have also been very strange.

The hobgoblins told us their plan, which was to make the wendigo ascend to godhood, so that it would be the gods' problem instead of ours and we could go back to warring with each other again.  We weren't completely convinced by that one.

Then a lesser wendigo arrived, and the clouds of green gas appeared, so we went and fought some trolls.  Trolls burn very easily.  Even my little sprite managed to hurt one.  He was very brave.  The lesser wendigo is waiting.  I will be brave too.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 6: Three or More Houses of Varying Dignity

I don't like it either.  These buildings don't move.  They have to stay in the same place all the time.

We spent a cold night recovering from the wolves.  It's a good thing Vared knows how to build a snow cave.  It was the worst snow I'd ever seen.  Aunold had had a vision...Mittens, no!  You can't eat Aunold's familiar.  He had a vision of the Elthani meeting with the Gallians at a meeting place, where the Gallians betrayed them and murdered them all.

We had to get out of the heart of the forest, and warning the Elthani had to be the right thing to do.  We met them at one of the meeting places.  They had previously spoken to the Gallians, and had a much more friendly encounter than Aunold's vision.  I think we have them persuaded to stand with us against the wendigo now.  Vared exchanged some dinosaur hides for sweet nuts.

We'd done all we could in the greenwood.  It was time to go to the city and talk to the Gallians.

When we came close to the meeting place near the city, Aunold began to experience deja vu.  He recognised the place from his vision.  And when we reached it, it became obvious that we were too late to prevent what he had seen.  Under the snow was the broken wreckage of the Elthani camp.  I had a look around, a little further into the forest, and found an odd looking patch of snow.  Too big for a latrine pit.  Mittens was very brave and burrowed down into it to investigate - yes Mittens, you can have a dreamie - and found what I feared.  The Elthani, dead and dumped in a shallow grave.

No, no, I can keep going.  And we had to keep going.  We met a Gallian there.  Not the ones from Aunold's vision.  They were wearing green, which is the colour for House Vexille.  The people the Elthani had spoken to before wore blue, which we learned was House Orzel.  I think a house is like a tribe, but with more difficult names.  His name was Brendon and he didn't seem to be bad.  He gave us one of the tokens people here like to exchange.  Shiny and yellow like the sun.  I didn't understand much of what he said.  The others speak the common tongue, but I was struggling.

I asked Mittens to fly up and take a look around.  She saw an area of forest further away, where all the trees had been cut down.  We all know not to fell in the greenwood.  But the Gallians are encroaching on land that is not there.  There will be trouble from this.

We met some more Gallians on the way here, wearing yellow.  They looked strong and carried proper weapons instead of the black powder machines that Gallians like.  Tonk and me were quite impressed.  I asked the others to find out if they were potentially interested in marriage.  They seemed quite receptive, and gave flowers to Tonk and me, which I thought was rather nice.

We had a guide through the city.  A boy.  We passed House Vexille's place, which was a pleasure house.  Apparently Tonk wouldn't be allowed in because she's too small.  He took us to the place we were looking for.  The house in blue.  I don't remember the name.  So many names.  They talked in the common tongue.  I need to learn it.

Then we were shown to this place.  People sleep in these places.  But it's not so bad really.  The owner brought us lots of drinks that we could see through, which was weird, and some cheese, which was like drink but not runny, so also weird.

We had a visit from an enchantress with her face decorated to look like she'd been drinking blood.  Apparently that is the only way a witch can get any respect here.  This place gets stranger.  I think Tonk likes her.  Perhaps if I learn the common tongue I can tell her that?

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 5: Wolves of Winter

We have a job to do, and we barely know where to start.  I know, you'd help me if you could.  Mittens!  Spit that out!  That's not nice.

We decided to wait until just after the howl, to give us as much time as possible to investigate.  All our lives we've been told not to go to that part of the forest, and there we were walking right into it.  The wendigo wants war, and the hobgoblins want to supply it, and how do you stop that without making war?

How has learning the path I was born to walk made me feel so lost?

We just have to hope that we're going in the right direction.  Destroying the vile fetishes that the hobgoblins produce has to be the right thing, and destroying the hobgoblins at the same time probably doesn't hurt anything.  And we were able to rescue someone.  A Blood Druid, being dragged off to be turned into fetishes.  We saved his life when we killed the hobgoblins.

We talked.  War is the way of our people, and trying to persuade anyone, let alone the Blood Druids, that we need to set it aside to fight a greater foe, so that we might one day return to our ways, is extraordinarily difficult.  But we have sown the seeds, and arranged to meet at one of the meeting places.

The yetis are dead.  I don't know how or why.  I wondered why they left the mountain early and perhaps now I will never know.  But something has killed them, and left their broken bodies behind.  No, I didn't see them.  I hope I never do.

We need to talk to the Ulthani.  They are more amenable to talk than the Blood Druids.  If they can be swayed, we will be able to present a combined front to the Blood Druids, especially if the Gallian cloth wearers will also stand with us.

What?  Yes, we are a bit of a mess right now.  We met a winter wolf and some wargs on the way back.  It was terrible.  They were too strong for me or my fairy friends.  They were too strong for all of us.  I charmed one, but could not stop the others, and one by one I saw my friends fall under their claws and teeth and ice.  I called upon the spirit of the Great Bear and transformed.  I was strong and fast and powerful, but clumsy and awkward with the claws and teeth I had never used before.  I tried so hard, but could barely scratch them.  It was Turgut, standing beside me, who struck fatal blow after fatal blow.  We owe him our lives.

Thank you, Mittens.  You must know a lot about how to use teeth and claws.  That would be very helpful.  But now we need to rest.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 4: Homecoming

Yes, little ones, I've come home!

We're moving the tribe.  It's not safe to stay any longer, not with the darkness in the forest.  Vared is accompanying them for the first leg of the journey.

We have a name for the darkness now.  Wendigo.

Shamen Aunold thought we should head closer to the heart of the forest, to see what we can learn and to deal with any hobgoblins we found.  They were not always as they are.  Once they made fetishes to ward off the evil, like the yetis do.  Now they are a part of it.

We camped alongside a group of Ulthani for the first night.  Yes, Mittens!  The holes are important.  Do you want to go accidentally treading in that?  Yes, it is a good point, especially for someone who washes their feet with their tongue.  The morning was strange.  There was music as we awoke - or was that a dream?  Really, Mittens?  Then it can't have been a dream.

People acted strangely.  The Ulthani made a horrible drink with hot water and bitter leaves.  Aunold said very cryptic things to one of them.  His familiar has a new hat.  Yes, Mittens, I'll ask him to make you one too, but I thought you considered clothing to be demeaning?  Well, if you say so.

We found the hobgoblin camp we were looking for.  I summoned a grig to play some lovely music while Tonk played her drums.  It was a lovely party.  Yes, most of them died covered in ice.  Tonk can do that too.  Aunold talked to one of them afterwards, but I don't know what he said.  I don't speak goblin.

While Aunold was doing his ritual I looked after Taint.  He was quite badly hurt, but I found some good leaves to rub him with and he felt much better afterwards.

I was going to treat Turgut next, but then we were attacked by ettercaps.  I know, I don't like them either.  One webbed me and I couldn't run away when it hit me, but then I charmed it and it left me alone.  It was terrible what they did to the others.  I thought they were going to kill Turgut.  But we made it somehow, and then the green lady found us.

Aunold thought she was my sister, but she says she isn't.  I think she's my mother.  Yes, of course I'll ask.  The others were surprised my father didn't tell me anything, but they couldn't know that he never spoke.

I understand now, about the blood of the bear, and the blood of the forest.  Our ancestors made mistakes when they tried to contain the wendigo's power, and created the ghouls.  We have to do better.  All these years people have asked who I am, when they should have asked why.

Yes, Mittens.  Sleep now.  You can keep me warm.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 3: Darkness Awakens

I was a bit ill for parts of this game, so did miss a bit.  The GM magically revived me with sugary coffee.

Gather round.  We spoke to the tribe elders about Gunther FrostTouched.  We asked the gnome too, Tonk...yes, I like her too.  It was long ago for us, but elves live a long time, and there is one in the mountains who is old enough to remember.

No, the journey was fine.  Two days to get there.  We didn't see the yetis.  We spoke to the elf who was a friend of Gunther back when he was alive.  He knew about the darkness and the curse.  I was right.  When we destroyed the ghouls, the darkness was able to awaken again.  But what could we do, when they were dragging people away and eating them?  No, I don't want to be eaten either.

The elf was leaving his cave to follow the yetis down the mountain.  No, I still didn't see them.  They're very hard to find in the snow.  On the way I heard a strange noise.  Like birds, but angrier.  I summoned a gremlin to help me but the poor thing had so much trouble with his darts.  Once Turgut had dealt with the big dinosaur, the little ones ran away, so I gave the gremlin a hug to comfort him before he had to go.

There was trouble when we got back to the forest.  Blood Druids were walking parallel to us.  No, they weren't friendly like the Ulthani.  They all charged at Turgut, so I summoned a sprite to dazzle them all.  It worked a bit too well, and Turgut got dazzled too, but Aunold sent most of them to sleep and then I just had to charm the leader to get him to talk.  Yes, he was quite nice really.  But I went to play with my sprite while the others killed him.

Then I heard a terrible noise.  I can't describe it.  It was the worst thing I ever heard.  I was so scared I ran away.  Yes, of course they came after me.  We're a tribe.  I know, some of them think I'm strange.  But they are my people.  Just like you.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 2: Mushroom Mushroom

The game is a little slow at the moment because we're all learning Pathfinder 2e together.  Things will probably speed up in future games.

Hello, little ones.  Yes, it's time.

We went back to the barrow, with the priest this time, but he couldn't read the stone slab either.  He made a copy to look at later.

There were many fungus leshy around the barrow.  I'd never seen so many at one time before.  The others found them unsettling, but I though they were beautiful - yes, just like you.  Some leaf leshy joined us.  I asked Mittens to climb a tree and tell us if she could see anything interesting, but the leaf leshy made her fall down again.  No, that wasn't very nice.  Poor Mittens.

We left the barrow and found a hobgoblin camp.  Yes, very big and scary, and they had a giant pig with them.  But the hobgoblins were mostly asleep and the pig was away from their fire, so we attacked them.  Yes, they're all gone now.  My poor mitflit got flattened when the pig charged in though.

What did I do?  Well, of course I charmed the pig and lead it away into the woods where it could be free and not trample anyone else to death.

The writing?  Yes, we all looked at it when we got back.  I think we have it worked out now.  It's about how our tribe once fought the Broken Skull tribe.  And then a darkness awoke at the heart of the Greenwood.  Maybe the Broken Skull were the people who became the ghouls in the barrow?  There was something about a curse, and something about the blood of the forest and the blood of the bear entwined.

I know.  I'm scared.  But I have to learn more.

Ylva Talks to the Fairies, part 1: Ghouls and Ghasts

Introducing Ylva Ulfsdottir, my new Pathfinder 2e character.  She's a fey-blooded sorcerer.  Or 'forest witch', as she prefers to put it.  Our GM is aiming for something a bit more dark and gritty than your typical Pathfinder adventure - although with us lot involved, who knows how it's going to go?

It's at least twenty-five winters since Ulf went hunting in the greenwood and disappeared.

Parties went out looking for him when he first failed to come home. One of the tribe's best trackers managed to pick up his trail, and for a while was making good progress, but as the tracker got further off the beaten path, he and his companions found themselves increasingly confused, and ultimately had to abandon the attempt and follow the setting sun until they got back home. Ulf was given up for lost.

Imagine everyone's surprise when a few years later he reappeared, carrying a little girl.

Ulf never spoke of what happened in the woods. In fact, he never spoke again. The girl was too young to give any coherent account, beyond saying that her name was Ylva. She looked enough like Ulf that nobody had any doubt who her father was, although there was much speculation about her mother.

Ylva grew up as part of the Winter Bears, cared for by Ulf and other members of the tribe. As she approached adulthood it became obvious there was something a little odd about her beyond her strange origins. Nobody was going to argue too much with the girl who could tame wild animals, although sometimes when they thought she wasn't listening, people would refer to her in less than flattering terms.

Suspicions were raised when Ulf disappeared again, within a few days of Ylva being declared an adult, but she seemed quite unconcerned. Once again, attempts to track him ended in confusion. Many people expected Ylva to follow suit, and disappear after him. But as yet, she seems quite content to be a part of the tribe.

---

Hello little ones.  It's me, Ylva.  I know you're listening.

We left the camp today.  We didn't go far.  Just to the meeting place.  It felt good to walk in the forest.

There were Ulthani there.  I know, but they are not unfriendly to us.  Listen.  They had seen a ghoul.  Yes!  Of course we did.  My companions are quite skilled.  More came in the night, burrowing through the earth.  They tried to take the Ulthani, but we stopped them.

Yes, we were very brave.  Thank you.  We went in search of the ghouls and found a barrow.  There was writing on the top.  I don't know what it said.  It was written in the oldways.  We dug it up to get to the sleeping ghouls.  But when it got dark, a terrible creature appeared.

Yes, it was scary.  Let me finish!  I summoned a mitflit to help us fight.  No, I didn't get hurt, although some did.  And we won.  Remember that shriek?  That happens when we defeated the creature and the stone tablet cracked in two.

Shh.  Sleep now.  More stories later.