Hollow’s Last Hope – PSHC Session 2

• Date: Wednesday, 19th of March 2014
• Players: Koen, Patrizia, Steven
• Characters: Valeros, Lemi, Harsk, Lirianne (NPC)

This is the second session report in my Pathfinder Society Home Campaign where we started off playing the Hollow’s Last Hope Free RPG day 2007 module by Paizo Publishing. And so the story of Hollow’s Last Hope continues…

We start the session with Harsk waking up first and heading to the Sitting Duck’s main room where the owner is still cleaning up the remnants of last night’s party. Lemi and Lirianne join him a bit later and enjoy a cup of tea and some breakfast together. 

Valeros wakes up to loud snoring next to him and finds himself in bed with a very beautiful girl having no clue who she is. He airs the room, looks for a flower to leave behind, and heads downstairs looking pretty pleased.

The group starts packing up as Sheriff Baleson arrives at the inn. He looks even worse than yesterday and is still coughing up blood. He tells them that four villagers have died that night and urges them to find a cure quickly.

Valeros is able to loan two horses from the sheriff and the party sets out towards the Lumber Consortium camp where they encounter a very uncooperative foreman Jarlben Trookshavits who isn’t very impressed with a bribe offer of a few silver pieces. One charm person spell later, he’s a bit more cooperative and even offers the party some drinks.

Milan Rhoddam is called to the foreman’s shack and is more than willing to assist the characters as his nephew is also ill due to the blackscour plague. He points out Ulizmilla’s hut, the dwarven monastery, and the elder darkwood tree on their map and the party sets out towards the tree first.

When they reach the river and follow it in the direction of the lake, they suddenly hear an animal’s whimpering. Harsk and Valeros scout ahead and they find a Darkmoon firefoot caught in a trap.

Harsk spots some glittering and a dark shape in one of the trees near the clearing. When Harsk signals which tree, Valeros storms over there following the clearing’s edge. The hobgoblin is as surprised as Harsk by Valeros’ actions and drops his bow on the ground.

Valeros is greeted mid-charge by two razorcrows that attempt to attack him. The hobgoblin jumps from the tree as one of the crows rips a piece of flesh from Valeros’ neck. Harsk moves in and shoots one the razorcrows from the sky with his crossbow and calls for Lirianne and Lemi.

Valeros in the meanwhile kicks the hobgoblin to the ground and puts his sword on its throat. Lemi and Lirianne arrive at the scene and help the Darkmoon firefoot out of its trap.

As Harsk and Valeros discuss what to do with the hobgoblin, the remaining razorcrow keeps flying into them until a well-aimed stone from Lemi’s sling sends it crashing to the ground. Then a long discussion ensues on what to do with the hobgoblin.

Harsk’s hatred for goblinoid creatures is evident as he wants to kill it. The rest of the party doesn’t want to kill a defeated foe and after several attempts at communicating with the hobgoblin, he’s cut loose.

After a few more hours of travelling the party decides to set up camp and Lemi and Harsk take up watch duty while Valeros sleeps off the remainder of his hangover.

Harsk wakes up everyone at first light and the journey continues until they reach a clearing where a giant darkwood tree looms over everyone and everything. Harsk is enthralled by this wonder of nature, so much so that he throws his usual caution to the wind and approaches the tree to admire it.

Then a Tatzlwyrm living in the tree jumps on him and pins him belly-down to the ground. While the rest of the party runs to his aid, the worm bites Harsk’s neck, leaving a gaping wound. Valeros, Lemi, and Lirianne attack in full force but the worm won’t release its hold on Harsk.

Harsk then reaches for his dagger and stabs it into the Tatzlwyrm’s head, causing it to release him and flee into the woods. As none of them are well-versed in the healing arts, Lemi uses a scroll of healing which takes care of some of Harsk’s wounds.

Two hours later Harsk suddenly notices that there’s no wildlife noises anymore. As they move on slowly they see the vegetation change as more and more dead trees and plants surround them.

Arriving at another clearing in the woods, they see a small cottage accompanied by 14 scare crows on spikes. The vegetation has all died here and the trees are crooked and bent as if they were pushed out of the clearing.

Harsk moves to the back of the cottage while Valeros, Lirianne, en Lemi all watch the cottage and scare crows for any kind of movement. After listening at the door, Harsk forces it off its hinges and peaks inside while Valeros moves up to the cottage. Lemi and Lirianne also slowly start moving, but still focus on the scarecrows which they expect will attack any moment now.

Harsk spots a huge cauldron and an eery looking chair made of human teeth. As Lemi has a sketch of the rat’s tail they’re looking for, she moves into the cottage careful not to touch anything.

Valeros, a bit less subtle, picks up a pot and looks inside after which the cauldron attacks him. Valeros is able to jump on top a table just as Lemi crawls underneath it.

The cauldron rams the table and catches Lemi between its steel jaws. Lirianne shoots a big dent in the kettle causing it to slightly release its hold on Lemi. Harsk then jams his axe between the metal jaws and Lemi summersaults to safety.

Lirianne shoots the kettle again while Valeros tries to hack it to pieces. The cauldron then turns its attention to Harsk and gobbles him up up to his middle. The party realizes Harsk has been hurt bad as they see his body go limp.

Lirianne fires another shot as the kettle throws Harsk upwards and swallows him whole. Valeros then makes an all-out attack splintering the kettle and dropping it to its side.

As Lemi and Lirianne do their best to stop the bleeding, Valeros keeps hacking into the kettle just to make sure. He then searches the cottage and finds a root that looks like the rat’s tail in Lemi sketch.

He also finds a shrunken head amulet which they decide to leave behind. The party then use the door as a makeshift stretcher and move back towards the river where they’ll decide how to continue with a still unconscious Harsk.

Memorable moments of roleplay

• I ask Koen (playing Valeros) to roll a D20. He asks me what he’s rolling. I tell him it’s the Charisma score of the person Valeros wakes up next to. Koen then casually rolls a natural 20 and Valeros wakes up next to the most beautiful girl in all of Andoran.
• A 20 minute (real time) discussion between the party members on whether they should kill the defeated hobgoblin.
• Characters making remarks about Harsk’s surly demeanor. Harsk: “What ? I’ve been in a great mood the past three days!”
• The hobgoblin dropping his bow out of the tree, courtesy of another great die roll by the Dungeon Master
• Steven’s face taking on Harsk-like features when Lemi helps the Darkmoon firefoot from its trap instead of helping the party defeat the hobgoblin
• Valeros stating the obvious when Lemi is about to enter the witch’s hut. “Hey, be careful”.
• Lemi entering the witch’s hut all by herself. “I whisper Inspire Courage to myself”.
• Lemi tells Valeros to touch nothing inside the witch’s hut. Valeros : “I pick up this pot and look inside”.
• NPC Lirianne taking out the witch’s cauldron almost single handedly while the party is too busy taking turns checking out the inside of the kettle.
• Lemi climbing into the witch’s chair hoping it would somehow enhance her spell casting.

 Hollow’s Last Hope Session Overview

• Hollow’s Last Hope Session 1
• Hollow’s Last Hope Session 3
• Hollow’s Last Hope Session 4

Hollow's Last Hope Review

Read my review of Hollow's Last Hope here.