When we last left our heroes, they had returned back to the Hollow Hill, finished their explorations, retrieved the other bodies that they found within to return to the village, and arranged with Peder to have them properly buried. This amounted to the bodies being sunk in Lake Kever (the name of the lake hadn’t come up yet during play but there it is). After a night of rest, they set out to return to Oakhart and to meet with Winsome again. Near the end of the first day of travel , they came upon a burning cart. Gruff singing could be heard coming from the gorge nearby. Some investigation showed tracks leading into the hills. Following, the group noticed strange hybrid animals (a chipmunk with bat wings, a toad with a bird’s head, a snake with a turtle’s shell). Orcs along with wolves with rabbit ears and hindquarters attacked with one orc escaping. The Clerics Three returned to the smoldering wagon. Heading across a stone bridge that crossed the gorge, they noticed a cave and spotted the silhouette of a large creature within…possibly a troll! Delg yelled out a greeting and that is where we will pick up after the break.
There are potential spoilers for “The Glow from Hollow Hill” from Black Abbey Press as well as “Troll Trouble” from Gary Whicker. Both, as always, are significantly modified for our use. This write-up is from Muse and my GM comments are in [brackets and italics] as usual. We were joined by two new players, Jason and Kevin, who are playing Chuck, a human wizard, and Rosco, a halfling warlock, respectively. RJ was missing this session and Rachel played Delg.
Delg calls out a hearty “Hello!” to whatever shadowy creature he spotted below in the cave on the gorge wall, causing Otilia to hiss…”Delg..,shut up!” It is about this time that two figures appear on the other side of the bridge. Having heard Delg call out, they assume he is greeting them and they hollar out in return and a yelled conversation begins until Pallas calls for them to please cross the bridge so we don’t have to keep yelling.
As the pair of strangers begin to cross the bridge, the taller of the two happens to spot what looks like a very large green hand pulling a rock over the opening of the cave and we hear a muffled voice yell from below…”Go Away!” “Humans bad!”
We introduce ourselves to each other and learn the two travelers are Chuck and Rosco, and Pallas helpfully brings them up to speed on all that has happened.
Then begins a conversation with the creature below, which this writer had very little hope of recording, but will attempt to sum it up.
We learn that the creature below is named Clem, and after a few exchanges, we convince him to come up and talk. Chuck spies what looks like a big partially green ogre pulling himself up the side of the gorge.
As Clem breaches the top of the hill, he spots Delg, who happened to be right near the edge, and Clem exclaims…”Dwarves bad!” He then spots Rosco, a halfling who Clem immediately takes a liking to, excitedly calling him a “cute baby human!” and wanting to know if he could have Rosco for a pet.
[As might already be apparent, Clem is not a typical ogre.]
Trying to steer the conversation back on track, the party soon learns that Clem is a very simple creature and we need to talk as such. We find out more about the orcs we had encountered, learning that they had given Clem the horse(s) in exchange for him stopping the wagon, and that the orcs took the two people who had been aboard the wagon. We also discover that the scent we had discerned was not Clem cooking humans, but one of the horses. Clem it seems has had trouble finding food lately and was very hungry, so the prospect of food was too much to resist when the orcs struck their bargain with him, even if they were bad. We learn that Clem had left his home some time before and was called the runt. He had left when giants invaded his clan’s lands and taken over. He knew not what had become of his family. We find out that Clem is also a painter, that was why his arms and hands were green. When Otilia inquired what it was that Clem painted, he pointed to the bridge, and there on the underside [base of the bridge’s supports], Otilia can make out a sort of abstract landscape.
Chuck then strikes a bargain with Clem. He was talking to him about food and promises Clem a pig if Clem will give us the horse. Clem quickly agrees, saying he wanted to try pig as he had just learned about bacon! Clem disappears over the edge to retrieve the horse who is now screaming in terror as Clem hauls it straight up the side of the gorge. When it reaches the top it is wild eyed and looking like it will bolt. Otilia uses her mark to calm and call the horse to her, catching the broken harness and trying to soothe the creature. The party talks more to Clem, who says he’ll be right back.
He retrieves and presents the party with a large piece of partially cooked horse meat. The party graciously accepts and makes to leave when Clem once again disappears over the edge, saying he would be right back.
It is at this moment that Otilia spots a large bear with feathers and the beak of an owl on the hill beside them, leaping towards the horse she has just calmed. Otilia screams for Clem to come help as the bear rakes the horse with its claws, shredding and rending flesh before biting the horse and letting out a scream of rage.
Pallas attacks it first, as Otilia then casts a spell, killing it instantly, screaming angrily at it…”That’s for killing my horse!”
By this time Clem has climbed back up the gorge wall, his “paintbrush” in hand. He takes one look at the dead mutant bear and yells..”Shit” and immediately climbs back down to his cave. Chuck steps up to pull a handful or two of feathers from the bear’s hide as Delg notices three orcs atop the hill beside us, all bearing javelins. They attack, with one of the javelins striking Chuck who falls to the ground. Two more orcs appear and a battle ensues.
We manage to kill two of the orcs, with Rosco the halfling lending a hand. Two of the remaining orcs leave, and their last remaining compatriot, who had not seen his two fellow orcs hightail it away from the fight, soon joins his two deceased brethren.
Chuck yells down to Clem that it’s okay, the orcs are all dead, which only upsets Clem even more. Rosco deceives Clem by claiming the orcs took Clem’s pig and that we need Clem to come and help retrieve his pig. Clem agrees to help and climbs back up, paintbrush in hand.
When he hears where we are headed, Clem adamantly states “Oh no no no, Clem no go to bad place!” Rosco tries to convince Clem that Clem doesn’t know where the bad place is, and that he, Rosco, thought the bad place was over there…(the opposite way of the “bad place”) which upsets Clem who now thinks that there are TWO bad places and is now going to have to move again.
Rosco and Chuck then to try and convince Clem to join us, by saying that we are going to the good place to get the pig cos that is where pigs are. Clem falls for their subterfuge and agrees to go. They try to task him with watching the rear, but Clem looks blankly at them until Otilia tells him to protect the baby human. Which Clem all too happily does by picking Rosco up and putting him on his shoulder. We gather up the javelins left by the orcs and head off. We don’t get very far before Clem realizes where we are headed and once again adamantly refuses to go.
Otilia is able to get him to open up about why he calls it the bad place, and the party learns of not only the orcs, but also a bad human, and scary stones with the faces of animals.
Realizing that Clem will not go with us, the party decides to press forward and follow the orc’s trail and deal with the problem. [Isn’t that what heroes do? đŸ˜‰] Otilia calls out to Nefton and his sons to continue to hide, and then admonishes them to keep quiet when they start discussing things [like how to best hide and not be noticed.]
The party is easily able to follow the grain trail and soon see what looks like “bad rocks” The trail leads right up to them and it appears we will have to pass under them to continue following the trail.
[The trail led up to a cleft in some rocks. A pair of outcroppings hung above the cleft. They looked to be animalistic heads or possibly demonic heads facing each other. The trail led right under these. Beyond was a small box canyon. A large tent sat right in the middle. Two cave entrances were at the far end. Stone pillars stood at each cave entrance, looking to have the same demonic face leering, always in pairs, from them. As soon as one passed through the cleft, under the heads, they felt as though something malevolent and predatory was watching them…not from any particular direction but just in general.]
Chuck decides to sneak up to the tent to see if he can determine if anyone is in there. He listens at one of the corners before slipping back to report that he heard nothing inside the tent. The party sends him back to look inside this time to discover if there was anyone in there.
Other party members wanted to set fire to the pavilion to draw out anyone who might be in there, but Otilia was strongly against that measure in case the two humans we know are missing are inside.
Chuck sneaks up once again and with quick movements unties the tent edges and slips inside. He feels a wave of rage and discontent as soon as he crossed beneath the tent. Inside he finds what appears to be comfortable quarters with a bed, rug, footlocker, table and chair. Hoping to let the party know of his actions, he ties open the corner flaps before doing a magic check of the tent. Finding nothing he searches the footlocker, finding only men’s clothing and robes.
He exits the tent front, towards the caves and uses mage hand to signal us that it is safe to come up to the tent. We get to the tent and Rosco, feeling a bit paranoid, checks under the bed, spotting what appears to be a rabbit with the legs of a spider. [Think a dust bunny with spider legs.]
Chuck and Otilia are surveying the area in front of the tent, towards the caves when Otilia notices that the heads on the pillars look not like horses, but baboons. This strikes a memory in her of a story she once heard while she was a sailor, the Two Faced Shrine. It is a shrine to an evil demon, Demogorgon, rumored to require some sort of magical entrance [to reach its inner sanctum].
The party, thinking that the grain had been stolen to be stored for later use decide to follow it’s trail first, hoping it might lead us to a storeroom, or maybe even the missing humans. As we follow the trail [into one of the cave entrances], we come to a Y where Otilia spots what appears to possibly be blood on the wall of the cavern, about a foot off the floor.
Chuck uses his mage hand and we are able to determine that yes, this is blood. We continue to follow the grain trail, and Pallas spots a small alcove. Inside he finds some men’s clothing and a chain shirt, all of which are bloodied. [The chain shirt also had a hole to one side…an indication of a wound inflicted upon the prior wearer.]
Pressing forward we continue to follow the trail, squeezing through a narrow passageway and coming out into a worked stone room [actually hall].
Ahead lies a large double door made of copper, covered in carvings of demonic apes and reptiles eating people. Its handles appear to be long barbed tongues coming out of a demon’s mouth. The handles appear shiny and wet with blood.
To either side lie a small alcove containing a statue of a demonic looking baboon with long barbed tongues that are dripping blood, that appears to never hit the floor beneath it. Trying to discern if there is magic afoot, Rosco uses a spell to disturb the air and verifies that something magical is indeed afoot.
Chuck tries his mage hand several ways to open the door to no avail. Deciding for the moment to check out the other areas first since it seems we have found not the storeroom we were hoping for, but the entrance to the lair of the Demogorgon. We head back and follow the other pathway and find only a long dead skeleton manacled to the wall.
Heading back to the demonic doors, Chuck spends some time investigating them and determines that it appears that someone had placed their hands on the door handles, over the barbs and squeezed hard. Taking one for the team, Chuck grips the handles and squeezes them hard, the barbs sinking into his palms. He lets go, and as he does the doors swing inward, opening.
Inside is a gruesome sight. Old blood stains nearly every surface. On either side of the chamber, to the north and south are alcoves with stone thrones in them. The grain trail leads straight ahead to an altar, caked with blood. It is flanked by two large iron framed mirrors and on the altar are black tallow candles that do not appear to be burned enough to account for all the wax that has congealed at their base.
Fearing that the doors may close and lock us inside, Rosco jams a couple of pitons under each door to hold them open.
Pallas inspects the trail of grain, noticing that it puddles into a small pool about 5 feet from the altar, while Otilia investigates the alcoves and thrones. They appear to be simple crude thrones whose seats and floor around the thrones are stained with blood.
Pallas continues to follow the grain trail and notices that the mirrors aren’t really mirrors. They seem to contain a dark swirling mist and cast no reflection.
Using his mage hand once more, Chuck touches the surface of one of the mirrors. It appears solid and causes no reaction or reflection. He then touches the altar. Again, no reaction. So he lights the candle on the left.
Otilia suddenly hears dripping and turns to locate the sound. The seat of the throne on the north side is covered with blood and it has begun to flow onto the floor.
Chuck then lights the other candle, and the throne to the south begins to flood with blood. He extinguishes both candles and the blood immediately stops and begins to dry up. He approaches the mirror and touches it. It’s still a mirror.
Pallas, recalling that this is the TWO face shrine, suggests that we need to do things in pairs. Rosco and Chuck each take a mirror and try touching it. They’re still mirrors. Realizing that the thrones may be the answer, Chuck races back to the small alcove in the passageway and grabs the abandoned clothing. Placing some on each throne, he and Rosco each take a seat, Chuck on the southern throne, Rosco the northern.
Chuck relights the candles and the seats begin to once again flood with blood. This time however, the men notice shadowing figures in their respective mirrors, and we realize the mirrors correspond diagonally to the thrones. As each moves a limb or makes a gesture, the shadowy figure does the same. Chuck and Rosco each approach their mirrors. As they get closer, the figure gets clearer until they can see what looks to be a blurry version of themselves.
Chuck, hoping to make his figure even clearer, gets right up to the mirror and touches it.
The figure inside grows taller, clearer, and into a larger bestial version of Chuck. It steps out of the mirror, pushing Chuck back as it bellows, “Non Believers!”
[And that is where we stopped for the night. The Two-Faced Shrine is a place of legend, lost long ago. Isn’t it just like player characters to stumble upon something like this? I suppose the real question is what are the orcs and this human with them doing at the shrine? I suppose it might be something good, but, you know, I kind of doubt it. My gut tells me that they are up to no good.
