[This entry is from Thomas and is a journal entry by Karaphos. Karaphos is a rather forgetful old man who makes up names for those that he can’t remember (or bothered to learn in the first place). Those pretty familiar with the campaign won’t have trouble figuring out who is who but for everyone else, I’ll put in the correct names in italics and brackets along with all my normal GM comments.
Spoiler Alert: Some portions of this session borrow from the adventure, Stolen Land, by Paizo. I’ve borrowed some locations, etc. and changed to protect the innocent.]
[At the end of last session, the party had reached the ruined “temple” of Ullr and had killed a very large bear that had charged out of the cave as well as a giant spider that suddenly showed up. The water in the pool had exploded upward and took the shape of a bear’s head with antlers and seemed to focus its attention on Andwick as he went blind. Cuðbert was getting ready to enter the cave and seek out the chest as the key seemed to point in that direction.]
Hearthlands – Freelands – Myrkr Holt
Day 442 of Search for Known New Species
Day 4 or 6 after recruiting the Heroes of Dalsetter
[Apparently Karaphos believes that he has recruited the Heroes of Dalsetter to assist in his botanical research.]
I am sure the presence of Ullr’s Antlers is at this shrine! I have never been so sure of something in my life. Otherwise, what was the purpose of this elaborate “trap?”
After dispatching of the giant antlered bear, it would appear that its spirit transferred to the pool in the glade. I am guessing it is some sort of arcane trap or maybe some lesser avatar sent to protect his shrine. The spirit erupts from the water! Antik [Andwick] is blind!
The spirit seems to be bringing natural predators to protect its glade. From the look of it, Custardis [Cuðbert] gets a little rustled every time the spirit is calling to them. And Gausinimo [Gaupa] is missing! Nila [Nissa] shoots at the Water Bear. The arrows pass straight through! My brother, Taraphos [Taranis…who does not consider the old man his brother] and I look at each other immediately understanding that our magical attacks might be the only way.
Some wolves arrive to protect the glade! Wubblywyn [Wulfwynn] channels Eostre to entangle the one that attacked me! (I understand them. We are like one! They are only following their instinct.) I knock one out. It will wake later and continue its normal life. The Heroes are killing the poor creatures. They don’t seem to understand, I think…
[Karaphos was the first to express some concern about killing these creatures. More on that later.]
Out of the corner of my eye I see Gaupisinto [Gaupa] on the top of the cave! He came back in physical form to help protect Cuthardis [Cuðbert]. Cuth [Cuðbert] charges the wolf but stumbles on a dead human body and breaks his leg! (I must remember to try and examine this. He will certainly need some healing.) Goopa [Gaupa] jumps down and attacks Cutter [Cuðbert] though!! What is happening?!
[Jamie wanted Cuðbert to leap from the rocks above down to the combat below. Given all the snow and growing number of bodies lying about, I asked for a simple Agility check. He rolled “snake eyes” and got a catastrophic failure. He accepted the Benny to not re-roll (per our house rule) and I described that he had slipped on the snow as he jumped and landed badly, breaking his leg. Cuðbert suffered a Wound and would have the Lame Hindrance until the Wound was healed.
Gaupa, of course, had not returned in physical form. It was another predator, a Snow Leopard, that appeared and “pounced” upon the closest target…Cuðbert. Honest, Cuðbert was the closest target and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Cuðbert is the priest for a minor deity related to large, feline predators. Nope, not a thing to do with that.
And just where did that human body come from? Unfortunately, the heroes never did have the opportunity to check it out.]
More protectors arrive. Griffon, Lyndwyrm (!), sabertooth bear, sabertooth cat, and lots of wolves. They attack me before some of my recruited heroes take the lead. Vines are entangling everything! This is quite an elaborate trap to protect the rare herb. Lots of the heroes go inside the cave to find it (a famous novice mistake – herbs rarely grow in caves; they will grow under the snow before inside a cave).
[As Karaphos alluded to previously, before the predators would appear, the “creature” of water in the pool would open its mouth as though it was roaring. This is when Cuðbert would feel that call of the wild…briefly. The watery creature was a spirit as per the guidelines Wiggy provided in Region Guide #1: Sacred Places >Shameless Hellfrost plug mode on< This Region Guide can be purchased...along with many other Region Guides...at the TAG store as well as DriveThruRPG.com and RPGNow.com. >Shameless Hellfrost plug mode off< The pool was the home of a spirit of Ullr and the glade was its sacred place. It was using a Summon Beast power to bring the predators to defend its home and avenge the death of its “companion” (the bear…but I can’t say too much about that). Cuðbert, given his association with Gaupa, was feeling the tug of the spirit’s summoning each time.
The vines entangling everything were Wulfwynn’s Entangle power put to rather good use and went a long way to protecting the party from the attacks of the various predators.
Tannerston [Taranis] shoots some lightning at the water spirit. Also unaffected! Now what?
We decide to retreat. Coobare [Cuðbert] limps from the cave entrance with a box! Not only did our secondary reason for coming here involve some kind of a box, but the box has some kind of a vine and leafy motif. (I will open it later. There shouldn’t be any problems letting a curious old man take a peek inside.) The glade is still swarming with creatures so the retreat is slower than expected. Also, we keep attacking ourselves and each other (I must see if there is a cure for this). Despite the broken leg, however, Coother [Cuðbert] bounded out into the woods with unnatural speed. (He still needs to be healed. I won’t be fooled.)
[Cuðbert, Nissa, and, I believe, Lia went into the cave. It wasn’t overly large and was clearly the lair of the bear. A small tunnel, smaller than the bear could travel, lead deeper in before making a sharp turn. A short distance after the turn was the golden chest. As Karaphos noted, the chest has a vine and leaf motif embossed upon it. All the vines come together around the lock and form a circle. The key that Cuðbert is carrying actually moves towards the lock…almost as though they were attracting magnets…unless it is restrained (e.g., it is now in Cuðbert’s pocket) With the chest in their possession, the party elects to flee the clearing.]
Due to the slow retreat, I spend some time looking around the outer glade for Ullr’s Antlers. I once thought I spotted it, but it turned out to be a shadow from some branches when Tassaranis [Taranis] shot some lightning at the wolves. (Oh my! He is being eaten! But Skuli [Wait! That one is spelled correctly.] saved him. I will lecture him later about keeping Deflection up… he must be forgetful.)
[The spirit continued to summon wolves (easiest to summon and thus easiest to summon multiples in a single round) to keep harassing and attacking the party. Cuðbert used his Speed power and took off in the hopes that once the chest was out of the clearing, the attacks would stop. They did not.
While some of the party is still in the glade fighting off the wolves and attempting to retreat, Karaphos started looking for Ullr’s Antlers…an herb of some sort. Of course, given all the snow on the ground, finding such an herb…even if it does grow in the winter…proved to be too difficult.]
We finally all made it out of the glade. The last few poor wolves have to be dispatched. Antneck [Andwick] can see (or so it seems; yet another problem I need to remember to look at later).
[Once Andwick left the glade, he could see again. Unfortunately for Cliff, he spent the entire combat blinded and so was rather limited in what he could do.
After everyone left the glade, no more predators appeared.]
Now we head to Helga’s Hut [Hulda’s Hut]. Since we weren’t able to accomplish our goal at the glade, maybe we can find the herb at her Hut.
[The party succeeded in their task of retrieving the golden chest though not returning it yet as we ended the session with the party leaving the glade. I think this was our longest “combat” session with Savage Worlds (not counting that ill-fated zombie one-shot). Depsite the length of the combat, nearly all of the damage inflicted to the party during it was self-inflicted. Cuðbert wasn’t the only one to hurt himself. Todd rolled “snake eyes” on a sling attack and accepted the offered Benny to not reroll. Taranis had been standing near one of the ruined stone pillars when he did this so I had the sling stone bounce off of the pillar and hit Taranis in the (unarmored) head. I suppose, thinking back on it, I could have had the pillar fall on him too…that could have been quite catastrophic. 😈
In the end, the party had provoked a cave bearish creature to attack by “invading” its home and killed it, provoked a spirit of Ullr to defend its home and avenge the death of the bear, killed numerous wolves, a snow leopard, a lindwyrm, a saber-toothed polar bear, and a saber-tooted tiger as well as leaving behind a lone wolf, incapacitated and entangled in Wulfwynn’s vines.
Given all of this, I discussed with both Jamie and Rachel the fact that I felt their characters (the Host of Gaupa and a Reaper of Eostre) had committed a minor sin. They both agreed that it was likely that they had…at least in spirit if not letter. So both Cuðbert and Wulfwynn will have a -2 penalty to their Faith checks for one week.
Oh, and note the interest that Karaphos has already expressed in opening the leaf/vine motif chest. He is, after all, a botanist and is quite curious about all things plants so you can’t really blame him.
Huh? What? Did I make the chest that Jutta the Fey expressly fobade the party from opening with a plant motif just to tempt Karaphos? Don’t be silly…that would be customizing a campaign to the PCs in it. Sheesh, why would I do that?]
