[This entry is from Todd. Both Rachel and Kathryn missed this session. Jamie took on Wulfwynn while Kathryn and Cliff’s son, Drew, came over to play Nissa.
My GM comments in brackets and italics as usual.
Spoiler Alert: Some portions of this session borrow from the adventure, Hollow’s Last Hope, by Paizo. There are also some potential spoilers for two of the encounters from the Hellfrost Encounters Book 1…encounters #4 and #18 to be specific.]
Away from the dangers of Ullr’s Glade, Karaphos lobbys for going to Hulda’s Hut on the way back to Askvold’s Stead. He doesn’t get any takers, at least for this trip, because of our other obligations.
[Lobbies for going? Todd’s downplayed this a bit. There was quite a bit of humorous discussion back and forth on whether or not the party should take a little trip to Hulda’s.]
Wulfwynn heals our injuries.
Not long into our journey back to Askvold’s Stead, our way is blocked by spider webs, lots of spider webs. Skuli seems a little unnerved by this. We back track a bit and skirt around the webs. Wouldn’t you know it, we are at Hulda’s Hut. Since we’re here…
[I had already decided that I had been a bit “lenient” with the party’s travels through the Myrkr Holt. The Holt is a dark and dangerous place and they had spent many days in it with little expression of this. I picked some of the encounters from the Hellfrost Encounters Book that would be appropriate and assigned each a suit. I then dealt a card to each player, asking them for a suit before I did. If it matched, encounter.
The first was Encounter #18. At the first sign of the webs, Skuli definitely got unnerved. He, apparently, still has some bad memories from being snatched up by a giant spiders in the party’s previous foray into the Holt. Instead of trying to hack their way through the webs, the party struck out in a different direction.
With Cuðbert leading the way, they skirted the webs without attracting the attention of any spiders (giant or otherwise). Cuðbert decided, but did not share with the others, that the best route was to head for Hulda’s Hut as the clearing there was clear of spiders…plus they knew their way back to “civilization” from the hut. So, in the end, Karaphos got to go where he wanted after all. Cuðbert kind of wanted to go there too so this might have just been a convenient excuse for him. ;)]
Karaphos and I approach the hut. Someone is watching, I can feel it. The stick statues move at the edges of my sight, but not when I look directly at them. It’s Karaphos’ turn to be unnerved. He runs for the hole in the hut, knocking down one of the statues.
[As far as those that had been here before could tell, the clearing looked much like they had left it. The cauldron which had been rolled through the hut’s wall in the earlier visit remained where the party had left it.
Also, when the party had been here before, no one had touched or disturbed any of the stick figures in the clearing and certainly did not knock one over…I wonder what the consequence of such might be. The statue was knocked over because Karaphos wanted to run for the hut through a rather crowded clearing and is not the most agile person in the world.]
Cautiously, we peek in, but it’s too dark to see clearly. Karaphos lights a torch. The flame brings back memories I can’t forget. (Maybe I can make a deal.) Karaphos enters the hut, I follow. In a wicker chair, covered with teeth, sits a linen wrapped body. A second one lays on the floor next to the wall.
[Good…Taranis still hasn’t forgotten his rude behavior towards Jutta or his choice of who had to die as a result. I’m just waiting for Todd to forget about it. 😈
The last time the party was here, they had “killed” both of the linen wrapped bodies after they had animated. They certainly did not leave one sitting in the wicker/tusk/tooth chair.]
Cuthbert and Lia come up to the hut, as well. The others stay back at the edge of the clearing.
[Both Skuli and Wulfwynn did not seem too keen on this whole sidetrek. They had a quest to complete and lives were at stake. As Cuðbert had passed the chest to Wulfwynn, Skuli stuck with her. I probably should have given RJ a Benny for that but I still haven’t gotten the hang of handing out bennies yet…especially in the heat of the moment.]
Getting impatient with Karaphos on how to deal with the bodies, I grab something off the shelf. The corpses come to unlife. Cuthert and Lia having been here before, jump to the attack. We get in an attack or two, then the hut begins to fill with a mist. I can’t see a thing, and the sounds in the mist make the fighting even more dangerous. I think I stabbed Lia instead of the undead thing. Somewhere in the mist, there is a loud crash. Cuthbert tackled the wicker chair through the wall of the hut. This isn’t working very well. We exit the hut.
[It seems that the players present had forgotten how the fight had gone last time and, in particular, the mist. Taranis did, in fact, stab Lia when Todd rolled double ones on an attack. In the last few sessions, the PCs have done more damage to each other than the monsters have. I still get a chuckle out of this.]
Karaphos is dismayed that he will not get to search the hut for his elusive Ullr’s Antlers. Cuthbert retrieves the amulet that had been hanging on the chair.
[The amulet is actually a shrunken head (or just a very small head) on a thong. The mouth and eyes of the head have been sewn shut. It is an alchemical device with both Wandering Senses and Gravespeak (each usable once). Cuðbert is currently carrying it.]
We leave Hulda’s hut to continue on our way to Askvold’s Stead. We follow the river. As night begins to fall, we push on to the ford.
An arrow comes from across the river. Cuthbert yells, “ORCS!”. It seems to me that he really dislikes orcs. The fighters rush forward to engage the orcs, while us smarter people take cover.
In a matter of moments, Lia lays dead. Nissa is an expert shot. In the chaos, I can’t seem to get my spells right.
Andwick, blessed by Freo, is able to close on one of the orcs and nearly cleaves it in two. The battle turns to our favor. Cuthbert is twice blessed of the Norns, as he attakcs the orcs. When it is all said and done, three orcs escaped, nine feed the soil with their blood.
[This was sort of encounter #4 from the Encounters book. I actually cut back on the numbers of bad guys…as the players started to freak out when I was putting out the orcs…and did not really enforce some of the movement issues across the ford.
The melee type characters, as Todd noted, charged forward to engage but the difficulty of crossing the ford limited how quickly they could do such. Cuðbert was already halfway across the ford when the orcs first let loose with their stinging rain. The others took longer to get across, giving the orcs a number of volleys before any of them were really engaged. Lia fell on, I think, the third volley.
We started using our version of the optional rules for Rune Bennies this session. Jamie had drawn The Norns and Cliff had drawn Freo. The funniest part is that Cliff bitched and moaned a bit about how crappy Freo’s Rune is…the Trait Benefit allows a re-roll of the Running Die and the Non-Trait Benefit allows the character to either run as a Free Action or ignore difficult ground. In the end, however, it proved quite useful. Freo did smile upon Andwick as he was able to close upon an orc with speed and grace and cleave it in two. This action certainly helped turn the tide of the battle as Andwick was now in position to go on cleaving more orcs.
Jamie used The Norns benny to re-roll one of Cuðbert’s attacks against an orc, got the Benny back (The Norn Non-Trait Benefit) and then used it to re-roll his damage (remember, we have a House Rule that everyone essentially has the No Mercy Edge).]
Taking Lia’s body, we continue down river to set up camp.
My memories of being burned alive keep me from sleeping. I hear something and see Cuthbert sneaking into the tent I share with Karaphos and Wulfwynn. With a finger held to his lips, he very carefully removes the key from the chest we were told not to open. As cool as it is at night, I can see the sweat glisten on his brow.
[The key had already demonstrated a certain sympathetic relation with the chest…it led the characters to the chest’s location and then had a physical attraction…much like magnets…to the chest. During one of the watches for the night, Skuli noticed a small, strange trail between the party’s two tents. It was almost like someone had drawn a line in the snow with a stick. He woke Cuðbert to take a look and they determined that the line went from the tent in which Cuðbert had been sleeping and to the one in which Wulfwynn was sleeping.
After Jamie keyed in to the fact that a key might leave such a trail, I reminded everyone that no one had ever said that Wulfwynn had given the chest back to Cuðbert. Since none of the players had indicated what the sleeping arrangements might be, I assumed that Wulfwynn and Cuðbert were sleeping in separate tents as that would keep the rather overeager key away from the chest. I also figured that Karaphos would be in Wulfwynn’s tent as that would keep him away from the key.
When Cuðbert looked in the other tent, the key was, in fact, in the chest’s lock but, fortunately, Karaphos was still sleeping. Todd aptly describes the rest…I think there might even have been sweat on Jamie’s brow as he was getting ready to make an Agility test to take the key out without unlocking the chest (I didn’t think a roll was necessary though…Cuðbert is agile enough for such an action). Cuðbert made sure that the key was securely fastened to his belt after this scare.
That’s where we ended the session.
I think that there are probably a few questions and/or concerns that have come out of this session. First, what were the orcs (of the Eye Piercer tribe, for the record) doing at the ford? What does it mean that three got away? Where did they go? I really had no idea when I tossed this in but I do know now. 😉
Also, what about Hulda’s Hut? The party has now put two rather large holes in the walls as well as moved the only “furniture” from the inside to the outside. Lots of shelves with who knows what also came crashing down as Cuðbert and chair went crashing out. I wonder how Hulda is going to react when (if?) she gets back home.
What about the stick figures in the clearing? There is clearly something going on with them. What might come of knocking one over? What about the “amulet” that Cuðbert “stole” from Hulda? Might she, when (if?) she gets back, come looking for it? Oh, also, Nissa studied herbalism with some other old crone who is (was?) something of an enemy or rival of Hulda…what’s going to happen if Hulda finds the party with the student of one of her hated rivals/foes?
I guess we’ll find out (maybe?) in future sessions.]
Not only sweat on Cuðbert’s brow during the key extraction, but on mine as well. In fact each time I read Todd’s beautiful description of that moment I get sweat breaking out again!