Rugby’s Roaming Roughnecks (2026)

A new, Pat-DM’d Pathfinder 1e campaign for level-15 characters, following JakeDM’s Campaign and DungeonVice. Session 1 was a character-building session zero; session 2 added magic-item rolls and opened the first in-fiction scene. “Rugby’s Roaming Roughnecks” was floated by Jake as a joke placeholder 2026-10-11 @ 00:23:40; “Roaming Roughnecks” / “River Knockers” were tossed around as a team name in 2026-10-18 @ 01:18:36, @ 01:25:57. Nothing is confirmed as final.

Premise

The party are one of three mercenary security teams hired by the Turgythe Space Program to guard the maiden voyage of the SkyTrain The Cloud Breaker from Tari (Gaithiyre) to Ka, capital of Turgythe. It carries the sealed The Heartcore and other teleport-unstable space-program components 2026-10-11 @ 01:01:15, 2026-10-18 @ 01:24:10. The other teams are the warforged Unit 7 Prime and the retired, level-18 Last Lanterns 2026-10-11 @ 01:11:32, @ 01:13:39. Payment is a space-program seat plus 30,000 gp each, or a vault magic item, paid only if the Heartcore reaches Ka 2026-10-18 @ 01:40:35. The whole train is under an anti-teleport ward and no one aboard holds a key to the cargo car @ 01:45:36.

The party

• Jake — Snook (Snook the Splendiferous), half-elf/half-noble charisma sorcerer
• Jess — Ren(n), half-shaihan cleric of Gulrathla with divination spells
• Rich — Rich’s Monk (Roughnecks), unchained monk (Wyveron/dragon subtype) who performs with an instrument; still unnamed
• Nutty — Taj Mac Nudat, swamp druid with a Jheri curl and the party’s crafter
• Ozan — Ozan’s Sorcerer (Roughnecks), a roughly-50-year-old charisma “control” sorcerer who plays a nosy old lady (mentioned as a witch in session 1)
• Donnie — in the group but absent from both sessions

Timeline

1. 2026-10-11 — Session zero: level-15 characters built, shared cover-business backstory improvised (barbershop quartet / crematorium / Siren Sails), premise explained. Ends early.
2. 2026-10-18 — Magic-item rolls, then boarding at the Sky Dock in Tari. The party learns the ward, payment and rivals, walks the train, meets Corwin, the Gazette’s Mr. Rowe and the tiefling bartender, hears of a prisoner in Car 12, and the Cloud Breaker takes off. Ends as a silent 10-foot Warforged enters the observation car.

Major threads

Dangling / open

• SkyTrain Escort Contract — underway, train in flight toward Ka (two days, one night).
• The Prisoner in Car 12 — hooded, heavily manacled; Jake wants to scry, postponed 2026-10-18 @ 02:12:02, @ 02:37:14.
• Other guarded components besides the Heartcore — bartender’s rumour @ 02:39:14.
• Unit 7 Prime’s “deny protocol”: the party learned (Jess’s Knowledge: history 36, Rich’s Knowledge: local 28) that the unit destroys the cargo if it cannot be saved, with only the engineer holding an override; the exact programming is unknown @ 01:58:11, @ 02:01:19.
• Last Lanterns — the party distrusts them; Corwin Ashby is the only one taking the job seriously @ 01:54:27.
• The Warforged in the observation-car doorway @ 02:45:37.
• Shared party backstory — never settled 2026-10-11 @ 01:36:53.
• Taj Mac Nudat’s crafting arrangement (10% markup plus “plant a tree”) 2026-10-11 @ 02:21:16.