We're back, with three sessions combined into one post!
Session 6
Dramatis Personae:
Alma Tumbler (level 5) Aspirant Ranger, purple feather mutation, Wielder of the Unknown Blade and the Lightning Bow, Chronicler and Sole Survivor of the first session
Olga Derippe (level 3) Body builder, Hammer Enthusiast, Haunted by a Revenant, Death Defier, Hoardmaster
Stratford Slee (level 3) Member of the Hunter's Pact, Arguably Australian, no longer stuck at 6 HP, ex-pirate
My notes for session 6 got considerably jumbled and lost, so this is all mostly from memory.
After leaving the black iron door behind, the party wanders into rows of shelves that are occasionally interrupted by brains floating in jars. They wake some of them up but find most don't respond or speak in tongues they cannot understand. One jar does prove fruitful, however, and it turns out to be the brain of Torovax the Yellow.
Torovax was a wizard of the Ranger's Guild, according to the records that the party had found on their last expedition, and the party eagerly asks after what Torovax knows of the curse on Honorwatch and what caused its fall. The news of the undead curse on the keep shocks Torovax, who entered the Stygian Library shortly before the fall to try and locate a spellbook lost in Starmoore. He has no ideas about who could have caused it, but he does offer to help the party in exchange for them removing him from the library. They agree and Torovax tells them of some hidden books that would help them deeper in the library.
The next room is a simple tea room and contains the hidden books, a considerably large spellbook and a book that causes Olga to level up instantly. Time works strangely in the room and after fruitlessly trying to sleep the party slowly realizes time only moves forward when they move. Taking the knowledge they have in hand they realize the Greatest Joke in the world is nearby and decide to forego resting and press onwards.
They find their quarry in another mess of pipes and clockwork, a computation engine greater than the last. A singular librarian is present when they enter and on seeing the party they scurry out of the room. Quickly, the party decides the librarian is going to call for help and finally they'll be attacked for all the damage they've done to the library so far. Fearing their souls being captured and catalogued by the white robed librarians, they quickly use the computation engine and print out the Greatest Joke. Stratford grabs it and carefully avoids reading the book, noting the way the letters swim on the cover and fearing it will sap his intelligence.
Just then, the librarians enter the room in force and unleash a flurry of magic missiles at the party, who turn tail and run. They keep ahead of their pursuers and even manage to grab Torovax as they flee. Stratford downs his potion of Giant Size and tries to create some obstacles while the party crawls single-file through the tunnel out of the room with a black iron door- now also chased by a hungry and cackling neurovore they encounter in the tea room.
Back upstairs, the chase continues until they reach the room with the cone that contains vials of what now are clearly recognized as souls. Alma starts grabbing the vials and smashing them, unleashing a vortex of agonized dead that swarm both the party and the librarians in pursuit, but causes enough of a distraction to allow the party to escape. The Scooby Doo chase continues all the way until the party escapes the library and returns to the sand dunes, where their running to the exit mirror attracts an enormous sand shark- which they barely avoid before closing the mirror portal and returning to the wizard's tower once more.
Back in the wizard's tower, the party makes their way to the tavern at the base level and promptly fall asleep after checking to ensure their horse and donkey were well cared for by their man-at-arms. The next day they make the trek down the mountains and back to Yonwell, avoiding the attention of a drake that loitered in the skies. In Yonwell, they finally meet with the possessed Destrian once more and deliver him the Greatest Joke. Destrian Rumboldt reads the book, chuckles, and then promptly explodes with a wet pop as the entire dream-like apparatus around him collapses and the party finds themselves suddenly in the attic of the house across from the guild hall, Scrying Orb and cursed black sword in hand. This adventure ends as they confirm the town has returned to normal and people don't seem to recall anything amiss, but they ensure to safely lock up their questionably cursed objects and deliver the Scrying Orb into the hands of the Bell Priests (as well as pay a bribe to some town guards who were questioning why the guildhall was covered in bloody hand prints).
Session 7
Dramatis Personae:
Alma Tumbler (level 5) Aspirant Ranger, purple feather mutation, Wielder of the Unknown Blade and the Lightning Bow, Chronicler and Sole Survivor of the first session
Olga Derippe (level 3) Body builder, Hammer Enthusiast, Haunted by a Revenant, Death Defier, Hoardmaster
Stratford Slee (level 3) Member of the Hunter's Pact, Arguably Australian, no longer stuck at 6 HP, ex-pirate
The events of the Destrian Arc now settled, the party takes stock of their priorities and status. Stratford and Alma want to visit Taubey in the Beastwarren- partly to meet with Cormac the Green and inquire about his story with the Ranger's Guild and Honorwatch and partly to allow Stratford to deliver his various trophies to the Hunter's Pact. Stratford, now, finds himself free of his curse of undeath but is still afflicted by a mysterious golden statue that he cannot seem to get rid of and that grows larger every day. Olga brings up the rumors of a dwarven smith set up in the hills near Honorwatch and Alma mentions that she'd like to visit them and get her two swords examined.
Ultimately, the group decides to first go to find the dwarf, then return to Yonwell and make for Taubey, hoping to catch a ferry in Magda. Winter is encroaching and the party prepares accordingly in the market, taking the time to hire a new lantern boy and discover a new alchemy shop has opened up (run by a previous random encounter, a young witch named Parsley) and readily empties the party's coffers by selling healing potions as well as identifying their many mysterious potions.
The journey north to the hills goes well enough for the first day, but on the second day the party stops to rest just south of the black-smeared walls of Honorwatch. Everyone recalls the many times they have been warned since their first adventuring days in these lands: "Do not sleep within sight of Honorwatch." Upon finishing their recollection the party notices a lone rider further along the road to the north, cloaked in black and unmoving. Weighing their options, everyone does what fortifying of their small camp that they can on these open plains and settle in for the night.
Not long after darkness shrouds the lands, a red glare blooms out of the tallest tower of Honorwatch. Stratford Slee, on watch, wakes the others as he sees the gates of Honorwatch open, a stream of shadow pouring out and only dimly visible under the glare. Everyone wakes and prepares as the shadow streams down the road and meets the rider, still waiting. Once the shadow meets the rider, four other riders are revealed amongst the roiling mass and the cavalry charge sets forward to the party.
Darkness shrouds the party and extinguishes their flames as the riders mercilessly charge again and again to devastating effect. Potions are chugged, "We should have listened"'s are said, but finally Stratford's wolfhead lantern is able to dispel a circle of the darkness and provides just enough room to allow the party to take out a handful of riders before the shadow dissipates. They rest for the night and quickly pack in the morning, heading off the road and into the misty plains to the northwest.
The mist becomes thick quickly, the ground turns to a sludge of mud and unnaturally tall flax, the air carries a smell of rust and blood. Navigation becomes quickly impossible, but Stratford notices the wolfshead lantern's eyes moving. Deciding to follow the direction, the party discovers a low, muddy hill ringed by twelve stone pillars jutting from the mud. As they approach, a wretched howling begins and the party sees the muddied and bloodied wolf-men chained in agony to the center of the pillars. Their howls rise to a crescendo and an enormous hand wolf, seven feet tall and cruel, emerges from a divet in the muddy hill.
Mud-zombies burst from the marsh and and trip the party up, trying to drag them into the marsh. Stratford beelines for the giant hand wolf and in short turn discovers himself alone and well over his head, nearly dying in two rounds. Olga and Alma are trapped below, slowly destroying the zombies and trying to keep the lantern boy alive, so Stratford spies the hole the wolf came from and jumps, sliding down a dark muddy hole and launching into the air atop an almost identical hill in a strange willowy swamp. Deciding to return, he slides back down into the mound and emerges from the other side, using the mud to slide down the hill and help Alma gut the giant hand wolf. Zombies and hand wolf slain, the party executes each of the chained monstrosities, causing the mound to rapidly inhale the surrounding mist and collapse into itself. Confused, beaten, muddy, the party makes their way north and manages to find the camp of Corin the Smith.
Corin has hired a group of laborers and hunters, her goal to dig into the legendary forge beneath Honorwatch and set up shop. The party agrees to help clear out Honorwatch's surface in exchange for some smithing work. The smith examines the two blades Alma brought and relates what she knows of them.
Eventide, the shortsword recovered from a cursed pond, said to have been wielded by Sir Dorcas, a knight of Honorwatch.
Hierophant, the cruel longsword that formerly held a shade of Honorwatch and was wielded by Duke Konrad of Honorwatch's son.
A legend goes of a sealed gate beneath Honorwatch, older than the hills and the rivers around it, and that three blades were tied to unlocking it- but as for the third blade Corin didn't know anything.
Goal met, curiosities satisfied, and with many new questions the party returns to Yonwell uneventfully and prepares for their journey to Taubey.
Session 8
Dramatis Personae:
Alma Tumbler (level 5) Aspirant Ranger, purple feather mutation, Wielder of Eventide, Hierophant, and the Lightning Bow, Chronicler and Sole Survivor of the first session
Olga Derippe (level 4) Body builder, Hammer Enthusiast, Haunted by a Revenant, Death Defier, Hoardmaster, Aspiring Gym Owner
Stratford Slee (level 3) Member of the Hunter's Pact, Arguably Australian, no longer stuck at 6 HP, ex-pirate
Piety Portendorfer (level 3) Gourmand, Survivor of a Death Curse, Notoriously not Pious, Aspiring AuthorAn old adventurer returns and joins the group once more. Piety had spent the last few months in Gnarledshore, looking for any records the Circle of Fire kept that could identify the strange crystal shards recovered from the mysterious cathedral the party had lucked into when investigating a cairn near Yonwell which functioned as a teleporter of sorts. Each of the statues in the cathedral gave a vision of a location and a similar cairn awaiting activation- and hinted that all of them activated at the same time would open the Cathedral's gates to the magnificent yet empty city visible from its warded windows.
Piety discovered records of a monk at an old monastery in the Karst, north of Magda, who had come across similar crystals and had made a device that could, allegedly, locate these cairns. Knowledge in hand, she returned to the guild and joined with the rest of the party for their trip to Taubey, this time purchasing a cart for the donkey, Dunketello, as well as hiring an archer and their usual lantern boy.
Winter has begun and snow has recently fallen, but the day looks clear as the party sets out. They stop in and chat with Alia at her shrine before they proceed north, once more examining the bloody clay pond where the old blood altar had been. This time, they spot tracks in the bloody clay, as of several large, clawed creatures emerging from it. Not wishing to make the same mistakes as previous guild members, the party studiously avoids interacting with the pond whatsoever and continue on.
The second day finds the party traveling further north and again underneath the gaze of Honorwatch as night falls. They lighten their packs and force march through much of the night until reaching a copse of oaks outside the glare of Honorwatch. Approaching the trees and looking to shelter for the night, the party finds a dozen corpses swinging from ropes, freshly dead and bearing no marks of resistance. They spot a pit nearby and consider toughing it out despite the decorations, but despair once more when they discover the pit is deeper and darker than they had hoped. Lightening their loads and taking more exhaustion, they proceed north one more hex to shelter in the ruins of some old buildings along the road to Magda.
Late in the night, four shuffling corpses follow along the road and attack the party. They recognize the corpses as ones that had hung from the trees earlier, nooses dragging in the snow behind them. Alma and the archer plug the first with arrows and watch it fall as an ominous buzzing emits from the corpses, and Stratford, Piety, and Olga charge forward with Piety protecting the others as Olga and Stratford pour and light lantern oil over the first corpse. Meanwhile, the other three corpses stop shambling and the buzzing gets louder and they open their mouths wide- the heads of giant locusts visible as they burst out and attack the party. Having fought locusts like these long before, the party makes quick work and cuts them all down and finally get some rest- just after Piety roasts one of the locusts and notes its strange pork flavor. Before settling in for the night Olga digs through the pockets of the now empty and dead shamblers, finding a heavy gold coin with a symbol of a man's gaping mouth on it. To her dismay, she finds that it bears the same properties as Stratford's statue and not only eats her gold but also finds that she cannot part with it.
Exhausted from the previous night's flight along the north road, the group finally reaches Magda in the early morning and get an inn and a hot bath while restocking their supplies. The town of Magda is not terribly large and notably surrounds a large hill near a river delta. The top of the hill has a chalk surrounding wall, the only access to the summit being a winding staircase from the central temple downhill. Mermaid motifs are engraved all over the town, and the party is on high alert after their initial investigations into the mermaid cult many months ago resulted in them being run out of town. With a mostly new cast, however, they once more decide to meet with the temple and see if they can learn anything new. Piety spends her time not shopping but instead fishing, and fishes a strange bass with several sets of eyes and small nodule legs. A nearby farmer warns her not to eat it as a beast in a cave upriver has been poisoning the rivers here and causing the strange mutations. After some brief discussions, the farmer gives Piety a small hand mirror and suggests she gifts it to the temple's priestesses. Excited, Piety goes and joins the rest of the group as they head into the temple.
The priestesses outside don't speak but do bow and usher the party through the doors. In the main hall, lush pillows and a lavish table of exotic foods draw attention, but immediately on entering a thick and sweet incense begins to dull some of the party's wits. The priestesses add more of the incense to the large braziers flanking an extravagant oak throne at the end of the hall- each handful causing a small puff of green flame. An older priestess in heavy robes sits on the throne and gestures to the party to approach.
Introducing herself as Sanesta and the leader of the Mermaid Cult, she invites the adventurers to share any tales they have and offers her own in exchange, specifically expressing an interest in any live creatures or samples that she could offer to the mermaids that dwell atop the hill in the Holy Pond. Stratford bargains as the rest of the party watches on, deciding to trade the fang he wrested from a giant snake beneath the Ranger's Guild in exchange for knowledge on how to remove the cursed statue and the cursed coin. He and Olga ascend the stairs to the pond and observe its strange milky waters and the chalk dome in the center as Sanesta calls forth a mermaid. Mist rolls into the pond and the top of an almost albino woman's face emerges from the water, reaching an arm out and examining the coin and statue before returning them and disappearing under the waters.
Returning to the hall, Sanesta tells Stratford that the coin and statue were created by an artificer in Starmoore, specifically to sell to others who wished to curse their enemies and then ransom his curse breaking skills in exchange. Unfortunately, the means to break the curses exist only in his shop in the ruins of Starmoore- which is inaccessible still due to the Castle Demon that lairs within. Trading yet more knowledge of the region, Sanesta tells the party that they can likely find a way to avoid the Castle Demon's ire by consulting with the dogmen that roam the dunes around Starmoore and finding their secret that allows them to walk freely within.
Piety rouses from devouring a lavish cheese board and gets her wits back, asking Sanesta if she knew anything about the strange teleporter cairn. Sanesta offers that she knows of three of them and Piety determines to return here and trade something for the knowledge of their locations later. Sanesta offers a variety of healing and even resurrection services as well in exchange for wealth or knowledge, hinting that if the party brings her whatever is tainting the river she'll gladly offer up more knowledge. The party notes down the location of the cave where the taint is said to be originating and then rests for the night and clears their exhaustion.
In the morning, a light snowfall greets the party as they decide to set out for Taubey. Originally they had planned to wait for a river boat, but with the river icing over there won't be one for some time. Instead, they decide to follow the river east on foot and use it to guide them through the Beastwarren until they reach Taubey. Their first day of travel sees them entering the Beastwarren for the first time- its enormous trees stirring as much dread as the strange sky-scraping peaks with a hazy light behind them just visible to the far northeast. As night falls on the first day, the party sets to cooking their meal and immediately draw the attention of a colossal 40 foot tall walking tree, two hippogriffs roosting on its head. The tree stomps into the clearing and ruins their cookware and extinguishes to fire as the party scrambles to hide. With a great settling, the tree unroots again and crashes out of the camp, hippogriffs eyeing the party as they exit. Chastised, the party settles in for the night with cold rations.
Late in the night, a shattering crack like a gunshot is heard to the north, followed by a bone chilling rattle. The sentry wakes the rest of the party just as a similar crack and rattle is heard to the south, followed by a third in response to the west. In the dark of the woods as snow falls, the party whirls to try and ready for whatever may come. After a quick argument of who will light a torch, Stratford hides himself and Olga lights a torch while the cracks continue to get closer. The light reveals the source of the sound to the north as it crosses the river to reach the party. A seven foot tall fiendish creature in the shape of a man wrapped in bone white carapace studded with spurs and spikes with a mishapen head that cocks to the side with a crack and settles with a rattle. Combat begins and Alma and Olga are immediately brought to 1HP by two of the creatures as their first of two attacks appears to horribly impair when struck. The battle continues poorly but the party manages to avoid any fatalities. Stratford leaps from the shadows and casts Body Swap on one of the creatures, prompting Piety to restrain his body for the rest of the combat. The hirelings fail their morale checks and panic, hiding in the tent for most of the fight before the archer steels her nerves and manages a lucky shot on one of the needle men. Alma's sword Eventide glows brightly and she skewers two of the needle men, leaving Stratford- in the body of the third needle man- to climb a tree and jump from a height before swapping back as the needle man cracks open on a large rock. From a previous encounter with smaller versions of these beasts, the party knows the value of the needles contained in their heads. When properly prepared, they can be sold for a high price, or used and inserted into a creature to charm them. The ethics of permanently force-charming people are briefly discussed as they set about removing the beasts heads and adding them to their packs before everyone settles to sleep again.
In the morning, snow continues to fall and the party opts to leave the cart behind as it is nearly unusable in the wild and rough terrain of the Beastwarren. They continue following the river east and come upon a large leaning stone tower near midday. A white flash at the top of the tower draws their interest and the party decides to investigate. They climb to the entrance and find the inside to be gutted and open to the elements, a frozen layer of water at the bottom and a singular trap door at the top. Olga spots something beneath the ice and sets to cracking it open while Stratford and Piety cast spider climb and pop open the trap door. Piety enters carefully and finds the room to be covered in branches and large white feathers, smelling of horse. An opening to the outside reveals a small landing at the top of the tower but its previous occupant is nowhere to be found. Piety finds a chest hidden beneath the branches and hauls it down the tower where Olga and Stratford are still breaking the ice.
Inside the chest, Piety finds an ornate flute with pegasi symbols. Making the obvious choice, she plays the flute and a pegasus lands outside the tower. After some careful approach, she mounts the pegasus and quickly realizes she doesn't know how to ride a pegasus and it has no saddle. The pegasus rockets into the air and by grace of Piety's spider climb spell being still active she keeps on its back long enough to get it to land again before it sets off once more.
Beneath the ice, Olga finds a pristine shimmering silk cloak, untouched by the environment, wrapped around a fine mace with striata of a pearlescent metal running through it. After some experimentation, the party finds the silk cloak can change its color if you concentrate and Olga dons it eagerly. The mace remains a mystery but is determined to at least be a +1 weapon.
Setting forth again the party quickly reaches their goal: Taubey. Near the river is a stadium sized two-tiered marble structure, the top sporting an enormous tree and pristine marble homes with griffons and wooden masked elves (the party has previously encountered them in the Greenspine) while the bottom looks to have been open air but is now fortified with heavy palisades. Devon, the Hunter's Pact member who first recruited Stratford, comes out with a scouting party and greets the group, ushering them inside and showing them around town.
Taubey's central feature is an enormous longhouse where a feast is actively underway. It also sports a robust leatherworking, tanning, and smithing industry- but as most of the town appears to be feasting the party opts to join them. Inside the longhouse, the walls are covered in trophies of exotic beasts, many of which the party fails to identify. Hanging from the rafters is a forty foot long winged giant snake skeleton, shining with gold. The many tables are laden with drink and food and the party sets to feasting and mingling.
Stratford begins his proper initiation to the Hunter's Pact by offering his trophies and telling tales of his exploits. A giant hand he carved from the giant handwolf wins a spot on the wall as well as one of the large needle man heads. The tales of the party are well received and not long into the night a ship captain picks up on a tale the party had been telling of when they had used the cairn to teleport to a strange floating stone island above a great bayside city plagued with wyverns. The ship captain shares that his crew were well familiar with it, being the western continent of Wyv, said to be filled with riches but extremely difficult to enter thanks to the winged terrors. He offers his ship's services if the party wishes to sail there and the party sets to discussing what possible treasures may resided within the floating island, now known to be rumored as the throne room of the last king of Wyv.
The feast continues late into the night until the door bursts open and Cormac the Green and several hunter companions enter dramatically, hauling inside a freshly slain drake. To the surprise of the party, Cormac looks to be the same as his statue in the ranger's guild- from the top up. He and his companions, however, have the equine lower halves of what was thought to be mythological centaurs. Cormac cheers and the longhouse echoes as the feast continues with a fervor and the session closes out.
