Hollow’s Last Hope – PSHC Session 4

• Date: Wednesday, 23rd of April 2014
• Players: Koen, Marc, Patrizia, Steven
• Characters: Valeros, Damiel, Lemi, Harsk, Lirianne (NPC)

This is the fourth and final 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 concludes…

We start the session with Damiel identifying a number of herbs from Harsk’s pouch and getting to work on the wounds of Harsk and Lemi. 

Valeros and Lirianne meanwhile discuss a strategy on how to proceed with two unconscious party members. It’s decided that Damiel will stay behind with the unconscious Lemi and Harsk while Valeros and Lirianne explore the room next door.

In the ruined library they only find mold and ruins until Lirianne notices a massive tome with the holy symbol of Torag. Not trusting the mold, they ask Damiel to identify if moving the book has any consequences. They decide to all cover mouth and nose and are able to avoid the spores that are released from the mold.

Having blocked all doors to the shrine, Valeros and Lirianne move across the hall to explore a small room in which they find a half-eaten crow but little else of value. Valeros kicked in the door with such violence that it set off the trap dropping debris and a small anvil from the ceiling but no one gets hurt.

The adjacent room has two beds and a kobold is discovered below one of the beds hissing angrily. Valeros then runs towards the bed and throws himself, armor and all, on top of the bed which succumbs to the weight, crushing the kobold beneath. Valeros follows this with a quick stab of his short sword ending the kobolds life.

Among the kobold’s stash they find a potion which is identified by Damiel as a healing potion. Based on this, he can also recognize his earlier mistake, and both potions are used to return Harsk and Lemi back to the land of the conscious.

The party then decides to use a table as cover and haul this table throughout the monastery’s hallway. At one of the doors they hear a slight whimpering. 

Valeros and Harsk move the table in front of the door while Lirianne keeps an eye on the hallway. After securing the door with rope so it can be pulled shut again, Lemi pushes the door open.

In the corner of the room they see a horribly burnt wolf that Valeros immediately kills with an arrow. A second wolf then appears from the adjoining room and is met with an arrow, a crossbow bolt, and one of Damiel’s bombs which catapults it against the table. The smell of burnt flesh is heavy in the air and the wolf doesn’t survive the explosion.

The group then moves the table towards the adjoining room where a huge wolf-like creature crouches on a ruined pillar. Before anyone can react Valeros already fires an arrow towards the creature but misses. As he misses a second shot as well, Harsk hits it full in the chest with a crossbow bolt.

The impact doesn’t seem to hinder the worg that much but Harsk did gain its attention. The wolf leaps off the pillar, and in two huge bounds leaps over the table grabbing Harsk and biting him in the neck. Right after ripping Harsk’s throat, the worg suddenly slumps to the floor courtesy of Lemi’s Sleep spell.

As the spell has only a very short duration, everyone frantically hacks into the worg hoping to kill it before it awakens. The worg doesn’t rise. Harsk is pulled out from under the worg and is stabilized once again but remains unconscious.

In the room Damiel discovers a hidden drawer in the desk in which he found an axe and a prayer book to the god Droskar. In the meanwhile Valeros discovers a bunch of ironbloom mushrooms in the other room.

Having found the final ingredient, they decide not to linger any longer and leave for Falcon’s Hollow, travelling during night time. Harsk is hoisted over one of the horses, while Valeros attaches the corpse of the worg to the other horse.

Several hours into the forest, the party encounters more keld piskies spiked to a tree after which a heated debate occurs between Valeros and Lemi on whether they should bury these creatures or not. The discussion ends in Valeros and the rest of the group walking off while Lemi stays behind on her own to give the piskies a proper burial. Guided by her dancing lights, she eventually catches up to the group.

By morning they reach the river where they decide to set up camp. Valeros takes the ingredients and one of the horses to ride ahead non-stop, nearly riding the horse to death. Around noon he reaches the village and Laurel is able to start working on a cure.

Valeros then returns to the group, with an additional healing potion from Laurel, and together they slowly make their way towards Falcon’s Hollow for a hearthy meal and a good night’s rest. The blackscour taint claimed the lives of 19 villagers but both Sheriff Baleson and Rhoddam’s nephew were saved in time.

Memorable moments of roleplay

• Koen (Valeros) is having trouble remembering names of party members. “Valeria … Larissa … NPCaria”
• Damiel discovering the kobold beneath the bed and Valeros, in true WWE style, diving onto the bed, crushing the kobold beneath his weight
• The players then start a true WWE tagteam routine where they tag the other team member to enter the ring and fight
• The characters suddenly are a LOT more careful in exploring the rest of the monastery.
• Lemi and Valeros arguing about whether or not to remove the keld piskies that they found spiked to a tree. Both being too stubborn to change their point of view, it resulted in Lemi staying behind to bury the piskies while the rest of the group marched on.
• Steven/Harsk setting a new record for “Longest time unconscious in a single adventure”.

Hollow’s Last Hope Session Overview

• Hollow’s Last Hope Session 1
• Hollow’s Last Hope Session 2
• Hollow’s Last Hope Session 3

Hollow's Last Hope Review

Check out my review of Hollow's Last Hope here.