Session 31: Rugs 2 - The Throw Down (6/30/24)

Desnova 14, 1423.

The PCs press the battle against the undead defenders, nearing victory when another spell cast into the courtyard causes the withered old tree to come to life and attack! Though it makes deadly crushing attacks and sends hurtling through the courtyard stones at the PCs, they still manage to come out ahead and fell the last of these initial defenders. They then search through the courtyard, noting the gardener's cart that seems to be a recent arrival and the property of a gnome, as well as the other which looks more like it might belong to Csunori and Boriya. They find broken doll pieces in the fountain and a magic pitchfork in the stables, and also a locket on the corpse of a guard up on the battlement.

They enter the Bloodwalls proper through the Eastern Vestibule, finding a cache of treasure and keys hidden in the floor, and some strange heirlooms and carvings. They search through a nearby study where they discover a letter addressed to Csunori and some precious books, and then they move onward to some servants quarters. The castle seems to have a strange flow of time, and many of its interiors are magical, with animated brooms and brushes in various chambers, and candles or chandeliers that will ignite upon entrance into a specific area. The PCs search through a nearby grand ballroom with strange stone murals of muses that perform music, and a stained glass figure in the window that seems to 'track' them as they wander through the area. They mess with the music of the stone muses to create a blood shower from above!



They next make their way through some kitchen areas off the side of the ballroom, and then find a chamber full of hunting trophies which animate to attack them! Bear rugs wrap themselves around Rucia to attempt to take the paladin out of the fight, while stags' and boars' heads float about, cackling with laughter that effects the PCs sanity! Fortunately, they don't possess the fighting skills of our heroes, and they manage to put down these beasts for good.

PCs: Aldren, Bjork, Nebol'shoy, Rucia

Session 30: Bones to Pick (5/21/24)

Desnova 13, 1423.

After spending considerable time looting through all the bugbear corpses, T-Rucia discovers something odd about the statue to the goddess Odhinnei, and soon the PCs confirm that it shifts aside and a stone stairwell descends into the rock beneath. They decide to rest in a Leomund's Tiny Hut and then venture down in the night. During one of the watches, a pair of ettins happens on by, but ignores the opaque barrier of the spell and focus on all the bugbear bodies our heroes had stacked off in the woods nearby, eating some and then dragging several others off with them.

Desnova 14, 1423.

Well before dawn, after watches, the PCs explore the hidden crypt below the statue, and find that it's some sort of abandoned hunters' sanctuary, with several chambers devoted to the bones and remains of prey, a lot of weapons which have brittled with age, and in some areas, skins hanging from the walls. They also find a riddle in one of the chambers, which asks the following: Bring to me, these prizes three, that I may brand my gift on thee. The gift of Claw, Great and Deep, The Beak of Eternity, stalking Steep. And between these objects, thou must lie, The Heart of Forest’s frenziest Eye. After farming for some difficult mushrooms that can be used in potions, and catching a slick blind cavern fish to remove a glittering ring from its stomach, they leave the place.

The PCs forge onward for several hours towards their destination, and soon arrive at a massive clearing which has been circled with a ward of bone relics that prevent the strange 'nightening' effect within the clearing from spreading. Sure enough, there's a misty castle ahead of them, though strangely it seems to stand renewed among the ruins of some older structure or outer wall which is more what they would have expected to find of Old Bloodwalls. The old architecture of the castle seems to pulse with an eerie crimson light, and the place is surrounded by silent dead who stalk the fogs, possibly sentries left to waylay them. After loosing an arrow at a random zombie, they all seem to moan and activate in unison, moving in to defend the courtyard from incursions.



Led by an intense Rucia, the PCs follow their undead quarry into the courtyard and a mass battle ensues. With area effect spells, they manage to destroy a lot of the lesser undead who await them, including most of the skeletons and zombies, some of which they recognize as former residents of Zolovny! Some of the other enemies seem more difficult to put down, including zombified beasts like a giant serpent, a bear, a small black dragon and a hill giant! What's more, certain lasting effects that are cast into the courtyard by our heroes cause ribbons on a central tree to set ablaze; obviously there are some wards in place. As Aldren kites about as many of the beasts as he can, and Rucia is regurgitated from his near-devourment inside the giant's stomach, the tide of the battle evens out...the PCs have used up many of their best tricks, and the remaining dead are starting to land their blows!

PCs: Aldren, Bjork, Nebol'shoy, Rucia

Session 29: Everything's a Drum (3/26/24)

Desnova 12, 1423.

After capturing the second ethyrean prison relic from the hidden rotja stocks at Crumblemoor, the PCs decide to trek eastward into the Tzarswald before camping. They manage to clear the marshland, and Aldren finds a suitable covered grove in which they can rest. Throughout the watches, they hear some occasional horn blasts off in the woods somewhere, perhaps belonging to a hunting or war party.

Desnova 13, 1423.

Our heroes press on into the woodlands, but soon encounter strange rows of pines, several of which seem to sway or uproot themselves to create formations on the forest floor that seem more like a curated garden than a wild wood. They are 'approached' by one of the trees, which wields a set of drums and has a halo of birds fluttering about it. In a low-toned timbre, it introduces itself as 'The Roost', and is quite surprised to find that Bjork Two-horns is among the party. A friendly bard-off is initiated, and The Roost turns out to have lost to Snowcock the Sonorous in the past, so a prize is determined to be that disgraced bard's instrument, if the minotaur should lose.

A competition ensues, and the pine tree metes out an incredibly moving performance, with its low, rolling tone, steadily escalating drums, and tweeting bird accompaniment. Though Bjork does his best in return, using mage hand to play his cowbell while he slings his lute, it's not quite enough to dazzle the already entranced audience. In the second round, The Roost adds in some swaying pines that he animates with his natural ability, while Mockleg and Nebol'shoy attempt to spice up Bjork's next piece with some shimmering illusions and giant owls that can fly through them, an impromptu air show! Alas, Bjork critically fumbled his performance, breaking strings and causing the giant owls to misdirect and crash into one another, a disaster. Since The Roost has clearly won the first two rounds, there is no need for a third. It offers some wisdom to the PCs, and a warning to Aldren to 'watch his Six' after learning the half-elf's identity. It returns to its pines, the circle changing form to rows once more.

The PCs travel deeper into the Tzarswald, the sounds of horns seeming to close in on them, from all directions now, and an occasional thundering of paws or feet somewhere off in the wood. They come upon an idyllic scene of a statue to the goddess Odhinnei, surrounded by a man-made brook, but in a state of some disrepair, and they decide to make their stand against whatever it is that must be tracking them. It turns out that it is indeed the Blood Lake Band, the bugbears whose camp the party destroyed some weeks back, and whose scouts have spied them from a far once or twice since then. They are arranged into a quartet of small warbands, each led by a fearsome chieftain riding a dire wolf.



The PCs press into a defensive area about the statue, but it actually works against them as the bugbears rain javelins down upon them, and seem to be canny to avoid some of the defensive spells set up by Aldren and Nebol'shoy. The wolves and riders rush in to combat while their underlings continue to press the missile attack, eventually closing themselves. While the Blood Lake Band gives a good accounting of themselves, they are inevitably no match for the magic, missile and melee prowess of our heroes, and as the tide turns, several lightning bolts from Mockleg, and a polymorph turning Rucia into a T-Rex, help the party finish off the fanatical remnants of this hunting party!

PCs: Aldren, Bjork, Nebol'shoy, Rucia

NPCs

The Redhatch Roost (male? treant): 

Session 28: The Twistening (2/25/24)

Desnova 12, 1423.

The giant boars' cries immediately alert the giants within the Crumblemoor Keep, who rush out to join the battle against the intrusive PCs, only to be met with magical traps set up by Aldren and others. The two boars are taken out quickly. Spiky terrain, lightning bolts, and bardic musical assaults all slow down the giants' rush, but eventually the twisted creatures' brute strength, enormous damage thresholds, and ability to send out curses at range, that warp the flesh of their victims, inflict heavy casualties on our heroes. Almost all of them are felled numerous times, only to be revived with desperate magic and potions being stuffed down their throats by companions nearby. At one point Sludd had to flee into the nearby forest, leaving just a few of the PCs standing, but through a twist of fate and tactics they managed to survive, and the devious D'vryn returned to the fray when things started to shift once more in the reverse direction.

At long last, the giants are all slain, and the PCs, now decimated, begin to recover within the shelter of the Keep as they make some final explorations of the interior. They throw out a shelter spell, but on his watch, Nebol'shoy notices Krusty, the earth elemental familiar of his former compatriot Grittnar, snooping about the ruins, probably looking for his party. Before he can alert all the other PCs and deal with the creature, it disappears, burrowing into the dirt, likely to report back to its master. The party finishes looting about the area, finding a huge sack with some treasure that belonged to the giants, and then they prove further about the grounds. Aldren decides to dip himself into the rotja-filled well in the courtyard, and discovers a sealed, rusted panel at the bottom. After a few attempts, the half-elf uses a crowbard to wedge open the panel, emptying out the well into a chute and hidden chamber below. It appears to be the long abandoned stash of the brewers that once made the Crumblemoor their home.



Nebol'shoy and Sludd join Aldren below while the rest of the PCs wait at the top of the well, and they begin to take some of the old stores of liquor, when suddenly the possessed lantern begins to react to something in the chamber, a yellowish light that intermingles and responds back to its blue. A pair of shadows form defensively, and are quickly taken out by the trio of PCs, especially once Aldren dowses the lantern's glow, and then they discover the source of light...a golden censer on a chain of copper and brass, which also seems to contain some sort of swirling, ethereal being! When attempting to contact the device directly with his person, Aldren notices that it attempts to wrest control of his mind, perhaps this particular prison of efirnyy has a different defense than the lantern! Nebol'shoy cautiously prompts it into a sack, and the PCs join their companions above to figure out their next move.

PCs: Aldren, Bjork, Nebol'shoy, Rucia

Session 27: Moor's the Pity (12/17/23)

Desnova 12, 1423.

Rucia continues to smash up the eggs within the ditch, although no more of them squeal and there is no further response from far off in the Flailing Marsh. Satisfied with the carnage, he climbs out of the pit and the PCs marsh northward towards where they heard the hideous cry. They arrive at the Crumblemoor by moonlight, an abandoned keep that supposedly once belonged to a rotja-brewing family. They approach through a side entrance that leads to a terrace and the south tower of the keep, where they find a pair of strange magical kites tied off to a stripling in an ancient stone planter. The kites give a bit of a lift when held, so they decide to leave them tied back off, and proceed into the South Tower. The structure is in quite bad condition, and they proceed with caution up a central staircase. Aldren and Bjork remain on the 3rd floor so the half-elf can explore some of the wreath-covered pennant poles, while the rest of the group goes to the top floor and confronts a banshee...

The undead creature wails hideously, knocking out three of our heroes: Rucia, Nebol'shoy, and Sludd, and so Mockleg and Bjork begin healing them up before they die from the sonic attack. Eventually Aldren arrives and finishes off what Rucia started, dissipating the woman by the moonlight. Nebol'shoy finds a scroll case near a shattered chest, and the PCs head back downstairs, where they find a crushed human that might be one of the missing Gravers' Guild adventurers similar to the lady in the pit from earlier. The party takes a short rest before pressing on into a Gatehouse around the fallen entrance Gate. Nebol'shoy pokes out of the structure only to encounter the legendary crayfish Old Marrow in the courtyard. It grabs Aldren as he rushes to the roof, and the rest of the PCs file out to engage the creature. Though it hits hard and even manages to hurl an enlarged Rucia across the courtyard, the terrain doesn't favor its particular maneuvers, and severals of the PCs and their support staff deal massive blows to it, including a critical strike with Mockleg's shadow blade and a nasty sneak attack from Sludd! The beast finally topples, never to terrorize the shores of the Jaggerhead again...

The PCs find numerous magical-aura items on the creature, including one of the nets cast over it and several items from its stomach. They proceed to explore the courtyard of the keep, finding an old guard house, a covered well that appears to contain a supply of muddy old rotja, and a stable in which Rucia and Nebol'shoy inquire with some small alligators about what might lie further inside the keep, and the missing lad that the paladin has been tasked to find. The creatures don't know much. Aldren hears some creatures speaking raucously in Giant, and reports to the group. They decide to press further on into the Keep but first examine a boathouse near an old dried up waterway to the northeast of the Keep. As they return from this, they notice a burning projectile fired off into the sky above the keep. Aldren tries but cannot track where the thing lands, so they check out some more of the inner keep. Eventually, they worry that the projectile might attract more allies of the giants within, and forge a plan to assess their forces and perhaps draw them out. 



Four twisted giants and two giant boars eventually answer the summons with the blast of a horn, and the giants hustle into the Crumblemoor before dawn. Sludd, who hid out in the Keep, heard some bits of broken Common that they were searching for several individuals, including some of the PCs, and have some association with a dwarf named Grittnar, who Nebol'shoy identifies as an associate of Borya and Csunoir. Aldren continues to plan a potential trap where he can use a spell and then lay down suppressing fire against the giants, but as they are about to initiate it, several of the PCs stealth poorly, alerting the boars to their presence, who begin to squeal horridly at their approach!

PCs: Aldren, Bjork, Nebol'shoy, Rucia

Session 26 - Revelation in the Rain (11/19/23)

Desnova 9, 1423.

Nebol'shoy is pressed for answers, literally, against the wall of the hovel in the Drenches, and Rucia is ripping mad. Aldren latches on to the dragonborn's arm and Mockleg tries to talk sense from the rage, noting that the gnome has helped save their lives many times. Nebol'shoy is restrained while Bjork takes some of the former prisoners to the church of Sanctos where they can be cured. Rucia storms about outside, cooling off, but encounters a mysterious young girl who compels him with a sob story to save her brother from the dreaded crayfish Old Marrow on the Jaggerhead. Once the party is regrouped, Nebol'shoy tells them of his dark secret, that he once belonged to a club with these former Naturalists, each a specialist in a different field or element, but under the leadership of Csunori and her love interest they began delving into dark arts in private, culminating in the necromantress deciding to kill and raise her entire tribe. The gnome didn't go along with the plan, but was knocked out before he could escape (by who it is unknown). The rest is known to Rucia, who came back to find his tribe slain or missing...

Nebol'shoy fills the party in on whatever other information he knows about the group, dead or alive, and eventually Rucia decides to forgive him, for Nebol'shoy admits that he joined the party in the first place to help the paladin as a sort of penance. The party also tries to get some information out of the other freed prisoner, Sludd, who claims he owes the group a blood debt but would be more useful if he could get his fingers back. Bjork casts a shelter to protect the group while they sleep, and they rotate some watches, interrupted late in the morning when a mercenary comes to collect taxes from the hovel. Aldren pays for the back taxes and then sells the building to the Bluecoat for a gold coin! The PCs decide on a course of action before heading over to Old Bloodwalls.

Desnova 10, 1423.

After waking up in the afternoon, Nebol'shoy, Bjork and Sludd travel to the Silversmith Zmiev to get a spell component for the druid. Sludd seems happy with the place, and produces a silver pipe once the shopping has ended, claiming its from his papi. The other PCs go to the Blinking Kettle to gather the rest of their belongings with Mockleg and settle accounts. They then proceed to the Gravers Guild to speak with Ser Arkimedes Oldwater, and Nebol'shoy figures out the pattern to knock on the door by the flickering of torches on the building-front. He signs up the four PCs and Mockleg in the Guild Register and assigns them a cachet of equipment they can bring to explore the Crumblemoor, saying that the 50% donation to the Guild from found goods will have to be on the honor system as he is short-staffed. They take the cache back to the boat and depart from Arkany to Omutny.

En route, they encounter a swirling cloud of bats above the lake that also seems to contain what appeared to be a humanoid figure, but it moves off and doesn't harass them further as they row to the eastern shore of the Jaggerhead. They arrive at the Herring House and send a request to Sister Roil to regenerate Sludd's fingers, and also that Captain Condor has been rescued. Condor claims that he thinks the Berg sisters have sold his scalp-map off to the Lay Blades, the notorious pirates who are hiding out inland away from their usual coastal raiding, and might have stolen St. Flume's sacred Pearl of Embertides. They head over to the local Inn to get a room, and set some watches.

Desnova 10, 1423.

During Nebol'shoy's watch, a girl arrives and asks for more money for the next day's lodging, also asking about Rucia. Soon after, the innkeeper herself also shows up with the same request! They return to the Herring House, where Sister Roil offers a regenerate spell for some large donations to her Church, which the party ends up paying in a large amount of gems and a ring of swimming. Sludd's fingers return, and instantly he produces some rings from his belt and adorns them, seeming quite happy with himself. He claims he lost them attempting to rob the Berg sisters, which is how he and Condor wound up in the same flooded prison below Arkany. After some goodbyes, Bjork and Aldren equip the roguish D'vryn with what they can, despite the latter's distrust and animosity. In fact, the half-elf uses a sending to inquire with Olena Sallowmoon about the fellow, who doesn't speak highly of him, but claims that a blood debt is a blood debt. Mockleg is morose that more expense wasn't made to regenerate his missing leg, but understands that Sludd's injury was fresher, and that he is more attuned to his own handicap.

The party launches out across the lake once more, to the far shore along the Flailing Marsh, where they encounter a broken craft that has a large piece of pale caparace lodged into it, which Bjork wants to take and transform later. They set out across the pale grasses and reeds of the wetland, and after a brief jaunt see some Will-o-the-Wisps off in the distance, which they do not steer towards at Rucia's warning. The lights shift around in the distance, but eventually the PCs are distracted when they find a pit that contains a corpse and some oily-black colored, hard-shelled spheres. They appear to be eggs, and some have already hatched. Arrows and fire do little to damage the things, so Bjork uses a mage hand to whisk out the corpse's staff, and Rucia heads down in the pit to begin crushing the eggs with his maul. As the dragonborn cracks one of them, there is a high-pitched, awful squealing that emits from within, soon joined by another, much louder, amplified scream from across the Marsh...

PCs: Aldren, Bjork, Nebol'shoy, Rucia

NPCs

Triina (human female): a young girl with dirty blond pigtails that she wears under a russet cloak and cowl, she speaks in a sad but whispering voice that commands a great amount of sympathy and power.

Session 25 - Seeing Red (10/10/23)

Desnova 8, 1423.

After battling and defeating several cave fishers in the natural cavern, our heroes decide to go up past the red door, which leads into a humble hovel in the Drenches ward, seemingly abandoned, but there is some mildewy furniture and they find a lose brick in the unlit hearth. Behind that, there is some sort of prisoner manifest, with many names listed and crossed off, but on the right column there is surely the name of Condor, as well as some others: Meriam Smelt-Heart, Kvister Rabovich and Sludd. As it's dark and rainy outside, they get their bearings before returning down into the flooded cellars.

Desnova 9, 1423.

They backtrack to the subterranean river and decide to ford it back in the opposite direction, finding numerous rocky outcroppings that contain multicolored phosphorescent mushrooms, which Nebol'shoy is quick to claim, as well as a wooden hand and a rusted key bearing the name of a ship long lost to sea, known as the Saltgrinder. Some lore-thinking connects the key to the wooden hand, which might have belonged to the amputee-captain Rajana Stassov. But what is it doing here? They find a muddy landing off the river which they haven't searched, and then some mudded slopes which lead to a large area, and as it turns out, the prison they have sought! Several shapes, alive and dead are chained in shallow pools of water surrounded by the rubble of collapsed walls, and several of the PCs sneak along to see if Condor is among them. 

This alerts the prison guards, a gang of shifty wererats, large frog-like abilities with the ability to step through shadows, and a watery hag, which all join the melee to protect their charges. A brutal combat ensues, one which the PCs emerge from victorious thanks to some lethal spell-work and keeping the enemy divided. After searching their corpses, they do indeed discover Condor, who is disoriented but happy to see them, as well as another trio of prisoners which still draw breath. They try to mend the prisoners, some of whom are quite insane with pain or grief, and then having a last look around at a vine-choked smaller chamber, they slowly bring the quartet back to the natural cavern and up into the domicile beyond the red dwarf. 

Rest is needed, so the group spreads out over the moldy furniture and a watch is set. A shifting, sliding sound is heard nearby the hovel, and they spy what appears to be the loose flesh of Turtle, some sort of undead conjuring from Csunori that invites the PCs to Old Bloodwalls within a weeks time where they can hash out their differences, the necromantic message is particularly targeted at Rucia and Nebol'shoy, openly revealing that the gnome has some connection to the villains! The dragonborn paladin wants answers and grabs up the druid to have them!

PCs: Aldren, Bjork, Nebol'shoy, Rucia

NPCs:

Sludd the Advantageous (d'vryn male): A lanky man of some 30-40 summers with an unkempt beard and raggedy hair the consistency of straw. His fingerless hands are wrapped in soggy bandages and he's clearly feverish.