Halswood was indeed under threat – allies of the Redstone Spur threatened the town.  As you know, Halswood sits on the southern shore of a vast, clear, cold mountain lake, which was once the home of terrible predatory monsters until they were all hunted down by Rhenic some years ago.  At first it seemed merely as if the monsters had returned – but it was more than that.  Great grey fish with massive teeth were again loose in the lake, but they were controlled – by a coven of hags who dwelled in the waters with them.

Worse, Mauril and Athelas determined that these were creatures of the open sea – that had been brought here by some means still unknown to us.  Something more was going on – and we suspected it was going on in the ancient runs of Eriad, on the north shore of the lake.

Our attempts to travel there ended in battle with the hags and their minions.  We managed to defeat the horrible witches, and in doing so, we stole the magics they were using to control the sea monsters.  Using the weapon of the enemy against them, we were able to defeat the largest, strongest guardian set before the shores of Eriad – a massive dragon turtle.

That overcome, we docked out battered ship and scouted Eriad.  Instantly we were set upon by Jarls – soldiers in the service of Redstone – but these Jarls were different; younger and clad in blues instead of reds.  Though the fight was harrowing, we drove off or killed the Jarls – and took a prisoner.

Our captive – little more than a boy – told us there were more of his kind in the ruins, and that they were merely scouts for a larger force.  We resolved to destroy this scouting force utterly, in the hopes that any following force would deem Eriad unsafe, and turn elsewhere.

We approached the stronghold of the Jarls – an ancient temple of Archgate, still standing when all about it was tumbling down.  Knowing we were outnumbered and forewarned that a Druid was leading the Jarl force, we attacked from concealment with Longbows, attempting to whittle down the numbers of our foes.

The Druid replied with lightning from the skies.  We countered, killing more of his men.  The battle grew heated – and the enemy attacked with his most powerful force – a white Dragon.  She was considerably smaller than the great beasts which besiege Tir Castellan, perhaps twenty feet nose-to-tail, but even such a modestly sized creature is a great threat.  The ruins helped us greatly, as did my study and training – knowing that Dragons besiege my home, I have spent the last months seeking out all I can learn about slaying such creatures.  This knowledge and the bravery of my comrades allowed us to strike the beast from the skies – and slay its Druidic master.

The scouting force was wiped out – the Druid slain, his attempt at building a northern version of the Redstone Spur crushed – barely.

I traveled from Halswood to Queen’s Landing, where I am moving my War Griffons-in-training.  With Baron Caig’s permission I am establishing a Ranger station down the coast from Queen’s Landing to train my mounts – as I have accepted a Knight-Leftenant’s commission in the Aruthien army and am now responsibly to raise and lead a company of Rangers.  With Tir Castellan besieged, I know serving my Kingdom is my duty.  I hope in good time I am able to come against the enemies of our home alongside you and father.

in the meantime, I am well – though another message has arrived, warning of some trouble in Caliban.  I suspect I will again be sent abroad on the Kingdom’s business.

I’m not sure this letter will make it through the lines to you, but I owe you a fuller explanation of where I’ve been and what we’ve been doing since last I was in Tir Castellan.

Alder and I were traveling in Tantathia when we were caught in a blizzard.  We weathered the storm at Fort Rodez, and had to go out into the storm to rescue a stranded party of travelers.  It was well we did, for one of those in danger by the storm was the Aruthien Ambassador to Barloz.  We saved him from the icy storm and starving Dire Wolves – but we couldn’t save him from the summoned hellhounds of two assassins.

To my surprise, the assassins proved to be women – young, pretty women posing as barmaids.  They said their names were Tara and Isola, though naturally those names would be false.

It was too late to save the ambassador – and probably relationships between the Kingdoms – but we could chase down the murderers.  Or so we thought.  The assassins proved far more resourceful than we would’ve expected.

I found myself part of a group of companions.  You have heard of some of them no doubt – Alder of course.  A Spaarthan street rogue called Brenin.  A learned Mishyan scholar called Mauril.  Edelbrock, the prince of far-off Mastillan.  Athelas, an Ehrenlander who follows Athor the sungod.  Braden, a nimble fighter from Rothgorod or some far-off place, and Holly, a Flen from Woodsheart, and a skilled Wizard.  Together we set out after the killers, though we had no idea how far the journey would take us.

They fled north into the Tantathian March, paying local ruffians to kill us.  We dealt with them and harried them as far as Kylon, where the assassins purchased teleports to Queen’s Landing.  Scraping up our meager funds, we followed.

One of the assassins – Isola -  took ship from Queen’s Landing to Barloz, and we lost track of her.  We suspected them of using disguises to hide their true faces.  She could be anywhere now, looking like anyone.

Tara fled overland from Queen’s Landing, hiring mercenaries and riding out across the Toth Badlands.  We suspected she meant harm to Duke Vladir – as you know the Caspan Legion was at that time assigned to build a serviceable road between Queen’s Landing and Tir Castellan.  We arrived at the Duke’s Camp, but either he was not a target or the assassins could not get close to him.

We met the Duke and dined with him.  He remembered me of course, and seemed most pleased to meet Alder and Edelbrock.  I know our family is loyal to the King, and that Vladir is out of favor because of the Barlozian problem, but I liked him.  He seemed like a good man, not some cunning enemy of the crown.  Vladir gave us all the aid we could ask for and sent us along in our pursuit.

Abandoning the mercenaries, Tara went onward – turning north and taking shelter in the Vigabrock itself.  Outside, we were attacked by a band of strange warriors led by a fire sorceress – not anyone I could identify, even living my whole life on the frontier.  It was only much later we learned they were Jarls in service to the Redstone Spur, though what they were scouting for so far east I could not tell.

Not willing to abandon the quest for justice, we tracked Tara into the Vigabrock.  We entered the Stronghold clad as warriors, and passed beneath the very noses of the Frost Giants who rule that great fortress.  Finally our luck broke – Alder and the companions cornered the assassin and captured her – but Tara took poison and died before she could be stopped.

Now in possession of her corpse, Mauril and the other learned members of our party could see she was no human or elf of race of the Kingdoms – she was something else.  Something subtle and disguised – eventually, with much research, we were able to identify her as some minion of the Yuan-Ti, a mysterious snakefolk who dwell far to the southeast.  We can only suppose they were in the Kingdoms to create havoc and sow discord – but we cannot be sure.

From there we came to Tir Castellan – both to see you and to chase down the last lead Tara left us. We raided an innocuous shop in the south of the city – but the wizard we came to arrest and his greatsword-wielding bodyguard escaped us.  Still, we were able to alert the Kingdoms to the danger, and perhaps the machinations of these creatures will yet be exposed.

As you know we were at the Citadel when the Dragons attacked the city and the Jarl army laid siege.  The Redstone Spur may have Tir Castellan surrounded by I believe the city can be held – you and father didn’t build the city up from nothing to see it burned by a few Dragons, no matter how ancient they may be.  If there is any service I can provide our home, please call on me.

In my next letter I shall tell you of our adventures in Spaartha and beyond, and how it relates to combating the Redstone threat.

Our gaming group isn’t nearly as optimized as most, so we’re likely not hitting the best possibly mathematical combination of skills, feats, and spells, but then again, we don’t care nearly as much about that as telling a good story.

So far, we have a Cleric, a Fighter, a Fighter/Rogue, a Rogue, a Ranger, a Wizard, and two classes brought over from 3.5 – a Favored Soul and an Archivist.

For Roleplay reasons (most characters are descended from other characters from earlier campaigns) more than half the party are Half Elves.  Needless to say, we’re pretty happy with Pathfinder Half Elves.

Fighter:  Our fighters seem like pretty happy campers.  No issues (at this level anyway) with the new Power Attack – the low penalty to hit means it gets used almost all the time, and the extra damage at this low level is really important.  We have a Greatsword fighter and a Bastard Sword Fighter/Rogue, both of which can deal respectable damage – in fact, in certain games, these two characters being put out of action almost defeated the party, because their damage-dealing was so critical.

Ranger:  Pure awesome – except for the Two Weapon Fighting tree.  TWF just can’t compete with a Greatsword.  It doesn’t have to be equal – variety between weapon types and fighting styles is part of what makes the game cool – but it would be nice if it had a clear advantage or was better in certain situations.  It actually made more sense to build a Ranger with the Ranged combat style, thus freeing a fistful of feats to be used with the Greatsword – but that’s probably it’s own post right there.

Wizard:  Like all low-level wizards, a bit of a struggle to be relevant in combat, espescially after running out of spells.  Gaining steadily in power, though – a 3rd level Wizard is exponentially better than a 2nd.  Evocation should also start paying off as higher level attack spells are brought into play.  This character is also VERY survivable – we’ve played some very rough-and-tumble encounters, and the Wizard, ironically enough, is almost always still up at the end of the fight.

Cleric:  Spent almost all his spells keeping the party from being wiped out in tough encounters.  Turning under Pathfinder is just neato – being able to deal area damage to foes is really cool.

Rogue:  A bit of a glass cannon – when things go well, he’s the most dangerous damage dealer in the group, but if things go badly, he’s knocked out.  The closest the party came to complete defeat came when the Rogue and both Fighters were taken down … the group really depends on the damage output.  Also, being able to Sneak Attack almost anything makes this a very fun class.

The Archivist is fitting in just fine.  He doesn’t seem over or under powered versus the Core classes – just different.  Since many of the game sessions thus far have had mysterious elements or benefited from library research, this character has been right at home.

The Favored Soul is probably our least happy camper just at the moment, and may multiclass into a Core class.  (We’ll see).  This has more to do with individual play style than weaknesses of the class itself – this player would be more comfortable swinging a sword than casting spells.

***
Overall, I have to say the improvements in skills alone make Pathfinder worth buying.  We’re a roleplay and story heavy group, and being able to make relevant skill checks with more than just one hero is a big improvement.  We’d become used to the Cleric doing all the talking, the Rogue doing all the lying and handling almost anything else, while the Fighter almost falls asleep waiting for the next brawl.  Under Pathfinder, the Rogue still does all the lying, but the whole party usually participates in conversations (since all of them have at least one social skill and enough points to buy ranks in it) and often take an active role in things like investigations – since they all have some kind of detection skill, too.  Heck, characters actually have ranks in Knowledge skills, which rarely happened in previous 3.5 games.

Additionally, most of our encounters have been slightly overpowered – this is a veteran gaming group who should be able to handle an extra point of CR, especially fresh.  Many of the fights have been close-run things, but we haven’t had a single death yet – all the healers have managed to keep everyone alive, and thus far the heroes have won every battle – though some by a thin margin.

As I’ve said, we’re a roleplay and story heavy group not much interested in optimization, but thus far – Pathfinder gets an A+.