In the last session, our heroes had finished exploring Ednowain’s Tower, encountered a diseased dragon, disposed of a pesky imp, and realized that Drogar was infected with (and already suffering the from symptoms of) whatever disease that had infected the now slain dragon. They were planning on heading back to civilization (i.e., Broadwater) to visit Tamuril to see if she could help cure Drogar.
This write up is from RJ.
There are potential spoilers below the break for the adventures, “The Crucible of Freya,” from Necromancer Games (although a heavily modified version) and, “The Mysterious Tower,” from Goodman Games (also a heavily modified version). I also drew from Weapons of Legacy from WotC for some ideas and images I used. There are also elements of Goodman Games, “Legacy of the Savage Kings.”
We get back to Broadwater, with Drogar looking worse for wear. He is coughing up grey flem and is looking sicker as the days go on, it may not be long for him. The party decides to split up to save time. Bryn and Shory head to the Drunken Cockatrice to go look for Birch. Drogar and Reamus head to the Cask and Flagon to look for him as well. Romulus and Clarissa are heading to Hanill’s to find him and see if he can help guide us back to the temple.
Bryn and Shory don’t find Birch at the Drunken Cockatrice. As Drogar and Reamus go into the Cask and Flagon, they see Birch talking with the bartender (the one with the dragonfly ring) . They were whispering and stop when they see Drogar and Reamus walk in. Reamus talks to Birch and tells him we need his help. Birch says he is “kind off parched” and Reamus offers to buy him a drink and Birch agrees. He gets up and heads out of the inn, when they catch up to him he says “I am not drinking here.”
We meet up with Brynn and Story on the way to the Drunken Cockatrice and buy Birch a drink. We tell him what happened: the goblins and their sword, illness, the dragon. He asks some question about the dragon (size, color, etc) for story purposes and I show him one of the dragon’s claw I took. We ask him about the temple we were at and of course he is still very parched and we by him a bottle of something very expensive. He then goes on to tell us that there are several temples out there in the wilderness but he is unsure where any of them are. We tell him about the statue of the Wyvern and show him one of the necklaces that we found there. He gets a look in his eye of something and leans in and says that Hanil may know about the temple, since he knows the woods and that being a good place to start. We let him know that Clarissa and Romulus are heading out to his place to see if he would help.
He says that’s good, and starts to tell us a story about Hanil. He says that Hanil lives out in the woods to keep an eye on the witch. When we ask why? He responds so he can watch over his grandmother. Drogar is thinking grandmother??? Where is his grandmother??? But the rest seem to put it together that the witch is his grandmother. He says the story about an affair that made the witch (Glinnis) and Tamuril enemies is not the truth. The history and the story are different. He goes on to let us know that Tamuril and Glinnis were in different orders of the Twelve. Glinnis was in the Order of the Wyvern and was spying on Tamuril using a scrying device. Tamuril in a fit of Rage cursed Glinnis and Glinnis was struck blind. Tamurill afterwards was very upset that she cursed Glinnis and felt guilty for what she had done. Glinnis was was pregnant with Gemma at the time and Edowin had left to pursue his other dream of immortality, So Tamuril took Gemma and raised her as a ward. When Gemma found out the truth, she left the twelve and Married Gowain. They had a son named Haden who married Helen. When Haden found out the truth, he took it personally set off to watch over his grandmother. They had a son, Hanil and he took over when his father passed away.
We all decide to head to Hanil’s to let Clarissa and Romulus know what we found out. We meet up with them at Hanil’s and let them know what we learned. They tell us that Hanill is not here and we decide to camp here hoping he will come back. We set watches and get some rest.
Hanil hasn’t come back and in the morning, Drogar is looking worse. We decide we have to find him, so Romulus calls out to the gods for guidance to help us look for Hanil and tells us he feels he is this direction, towards the keep and generally towards where we think the temple is. We get to the keep, and decide to go around the keep, as we are going around we hear a voice. Nothing we can make out but it sounds almost musical. We decide to press on and Romulus asks for guidance again, and says that he feels we are heading in the right direction and we move on.
We continue thru the thick woods and hear giggling to our right, we are worried about goblins but with Drogar getting worse we decide to press on. Eventually we cut across a trail and follow it, we push on as far as we can and set camp. We set watches and try to get some rest. However, the goblins had other plans and attack us. Reamus and Romulus were on watch and are pelted with arrows; they scream we all get up. Reamus and Bryn are both struck down but we eventually take down the goblins and Romulus is able to get both Reamus and Bryn stabilized and back on their feet.
Morning eventually comes and we continue down the trail. Shory lets us know that someone has recently been down the trail. She informs us that she also smells smoke up ahead. We all ready are weapons and she say she is going to scout ahead of us. We move out and Shory comes back and lets us know that there is a clearing ahead with a cave and smoke coming out of it. We all move forward, when we get to the clearing we call out for Hanil, but get no response.
We move closer to the cave and call out for Glinnis, an old lady bent over her cane shambles out of the cave. She pounds her cave on the ground and a pearl of thunder booms in the sky and she says “Leave this place or worse will befall you!” She turns to shamble back into her cave, but Romulus calls out we have a gift from Edowin. The wind starts to pick up and grass ruffles as Glinnis says “If you are lying you will experience such tortures “ She comes closer to Romulus and asks “Who are you?” He responds “I am Romulus a member of the Twelve and this Staff was made by Edowin to help you see.” He holds out the staff to her, she turns and heads back to her cave. The grass around Romulus starts to grow and holds him in place. Reamus starts to move towards the cave opening when an arrow lands at his feet. Hanil calls out “No closer”. Reamus moves back and Hanil comes out of the woods with his bow still knocked. We ask him if he will guide us to the temple and start to explain what’s going on. He starts stuttering and we all back off and let Bryn try talking to him.
Hanil tells Bryn that he can’t lead us to the temple unless his grandmother says its ok. Bryn tells him about the sickness and that we need their help. Shory calls out to Glinnis and takes the staff and moves towards the opening. Glinnis comes out and Shory asks that she just takes the staff and see if it will help her with her sight. Shory puts the staff close to Glinnis, she just kicks it away and there is a clap of thunder and a lighting burst temporary blinds us. Shory asks don’t you want to see your grandson, and Hanil shoulders drop and says “That was mean” (He thought she didn’t know he was her grandson or that he was watching after her, but we assume she did). Grass grows around Shory the same way it did around Romulus and holds her in place.
Glinnis starts to call us goblins, but Hanil tells her we are not. He picks up the staff, walks to the opening, and hands her the staff. We explain what it we know of the staff and what it does. She walks to each of us: she spits at Romulus’s feet, (I don’t have the notes for everybody) and laughs at Drogar. she releases Shory and Romulus from the grass and turns back to her cave, Romulus says “Tamuril is looking for the a cure…” she spins around, her eyes wide and white, slams her cane down and lighting hits right in front of him. She then hits him upside the head with her cane. He picks himself up and asks her about her relationship with Tamuril, he gets hit again but this time between his legs with her cane.
We tell her about Drogar and that he may not make it and how important we find a cure for the village, she walks up to Drogar and asks what would you give to live? The group asks what she would like? She looks at Drogar, Would you give up your sight? He says he would to find a cure and live, she says then follow me. She turns to her cave and tells the rest “don’t interrupt no matter what you here”. Drogar starts following her.
That’s where we ended the session.
RJ also sketched out the relationships between Glinnis and others that the party had learned from Birch.
