Demolition, shoe sizing, sleet storms, a pig indirectly threatened, a mother, and bears (sort of)..oh my! The group finished up their exploration Windler House this session. They then decided to head out and explore the Bleak Mountains a bit, specifically taking the Perilous Path. A deal was made, a proposition refused, and some barter conducted. Details below the break.
Everyone was in attendance. There will, obviously, be spoilers for Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow from The Merry Mushmen along with our mangling of this very fine adventure. My GM comments, as always, are in italics.
88th of Summer
- Having reached the kitchen under the cover of a mattress, the group spotted wires crisscrossing the room. Markus slipped into the kitchen…but only just. Dieter and Marlena return back to fetch Ansel and Liesl and “mattress” them across to the kitchen doorway.
- Markus carefully makes his way through the various wires to be just out of reach of the pouch hanging from the wires at the opposite side of the room.
- As he reaches forward, Markus bumps one of the wires and a number of the forks suspended at the ceiling plummet down and impale the thief. He survives and consumes his peach from the Sunny Island…healed!
- The red pouch is cut free and the tension in the room’s wires begins to relax. As all of hte forks start to fall, Markus sprints for the doorway and dives for the mattress. His sudden approach pushes Dieter out from under the safety of the mattress just a bit and he is struck by a chandelier shard.
- The pouch holds lots of tiny shards of a ruby.
- To the left in the kitchen is a door. Ticking is heard from beyond.
- When the door is opened, various rotting pantry shelves fall. Canned goods tumble down and explode! The can shards are largely dodges by the party, if the individual member was not already out of reach.
- Flipping up the rug in the kitchen reveals a trapdoor. A ladder is under it and leads down into the cellar, various crates, garbage, and such sits below in about two inches of swampy water.
- Three smaller tunnels have been dug through the cellar wall. Various glowing eyes can be seen within. A ratty voice shouts out for the party to leave. The house is theirs.
- More rat goblins. They lament that they can only be returned to normal by the death of the hag that cursed them.
- Upon hearing about some of the party’s activities in the house, one of the rat goblins wants to go up and see the chandelier. Ansel and Liesl escorts him up.
- Ansel attempts to cast a light spell and loses control over his magics…interference by Old Man Windler perhaps! The magic goes into the rat goblin and rays of light shoot out from his eyes.
- The rat goblin shouts that he cannot see as his rays scorch the walls that they strike.
- Liesl grabs the rat goblin and points him at the chandelier. The eye rays strike it and refract…and refract again off of all the mirrors! The entire dining room is destroyed in an explosion!
- Ansel created the first raygun! Goblin Laser Eyes! (Someone needs to do a parody of Betty Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes…from the early 80s for you youngins our there.)
- An angry voice booms out, “Who is destroying my house?!?” Old Man Windler extends out from the wall and grabs the rat goblin despite Liesl’s best attempts to save him.
- A faint scream is heard after Windler sinks back into the wall with his prey.
- More rat goblins. They lament that they can only be returned to normal by the death of the hag that cursed them.
- Three smaller tunnels have been dug through the cellar wall. Various glowing eyes can be seen within. A ratty voice shouts out for the party to leave. The house is theirs.
- The group decides it might be time to leave the house, but not before they back up to check out the boots.
- Markus grabs the boots and needles shoot out. He cannot move. Windler rises up from the floor as everyone flees…with Markus in tow.
- Ansel hangs back and the ghost of an old man appears, asking if Ansel is interested in his boots. Ansel responds that he is and the ghost is happy that someone appreciates his work, adjust to boots to fit Ansel, and goes over the basics of their operation.
- The ghost then fades.
- Markus grabs the boots and needles shoot out. He cannot move. Windler rises up from the floor as everyone flees…with Markus in tow.
- As the group leaves the house, it starts to collapse in on itself. In the debris, the spot…for a moment…the ghost of the butler, the boys (no longer malformed), and Old Man Windler. They all look at peace as they fade from view.
- Markus carefully makes his way through the various wires to be just out of reach of the pouch hanging from the wires at the opposite side of the room.
- The group goes back to Ragged Hollow, ferried across by the lone fisherman out on the river, and settle down for the night.
89th of Summer
- In the morning, the Temple bell tolls twenty-one times…only one less than the previous morning.
- The group stops by Radomir’s to see if he has had a chance to ascertain what the ring Ansel found does. He has not. He spent most of the prior day enjoying the music of the ring and smoking, um, pipeweed.
- The group heads out to investigate the Perilous Path.
- A few hours of out town, another sleet storm hits. They quickly make their way to a nearby cave.
- After taking shelter within, an old female voice speaks to the group.
- It is an ancient harpy armed with an obviously magical staff, her wings badly atrophied along with other indications of extreme age. She is the mother of the other harpies that the group has previously encountered. Daughters that are disobedient and disrespectful. They no longer bring their mother food.
- Mother Harpy settles on Dieter and is quite keen on having him for dinner. Dieter suggests that he could get her a nice succulent pig instead (thinking about the pig outside of Olias’ Hut).
- Mother Harpy agrees that she will accept the pig or one of her daughters in lieu of Dieter…as long as either is brought to her within seven days.
- She taps her staff on the ground and the sleet storm ends, allowing the group to continue on their way. (So that’s where these bizarre storms are coming from.)
- Before leaving, Liesl shares two cookies from Beatrix with Mother Harpy. She says that she accepts these gifts.
- Mother Harpy also shares that Dieter is no longer doomed as Annika Black has slain the Black Goat of Doom.
- Markus, perhaps a little surprisingly, rebuffs any suggestions that he remain to mate with Mother Harpy.
- It is an ancient harpy armed with an obviously magical staff, her wings badly atrophied along with other indications of extreme age. She is the mother of the other harpies that the group has previously encountered. Daughters that are disobedient and disrespectful. They no longer bring their mother food.
- After taking shelter within, an old female voice speaks to the group.
- After some more travel, the group comes to a small defile along the path. A large boulder is perched, well, perilously above the path. Avoiding it, they follow a small path up the mountainside to where the boulder sits.
- A small hut is nearby. Snoring is heard from within. Markus sneaks up and peeks in. Two bugbears are asleep within.
- The party elects to continue on their travels, bypassing the boulder and its target zone completely.
- A bit later, the party spots a hunter field dressing a carcass. It is Annika Black and her prize is one of the harpies!
- Annika is not one for conversation, but she does agree to trade the harpy corpse for a few items from the party…a Sunny Island plum, some spare boots, some rope, and the silver mousetrap found in the Windler House.
- A few hours of out town, another sleet storm hits. They quickly make their way to a nearby cave.
- After the hunter goes on her way, the group starts to head back Mother Harpy’s cave. It will grow dark before they can get there and so a campsite is found.
- During the night, on Markus’ watch, Mother Harpy arrives. He looks around and none of companions are spotted anywhere. Mother Harpy sings out, “I think we’re alone now.”
And that is where we ended the session.
Never in my life had I ever thought that I would be quoting a Tiffany song during a gaming session…or at all. Do you see what you’ve driven me to RJ? Do you?!?
So now we have an explanation of the sleet storms. I like things to be explained like this and, well, it just fit with how things went in game and some random encounters. The group wanted something REALLY interesting to happen so we rolled twice on the random encounters…sleet storm and harpies.
How to spice that up? Mother Harpy! Leaning into the fey theme, a Mother Harpy who has some control over the Bleak Mountains and with ungrateful daughters. Done!
Oh, now why did Mother Harpy stress the acceptance of the gifts of cookies from Liesl. Gifts have no role or symbolism in fey stuff, right?
