The party continues to traffic in wacky tobacky. New magic items obtained. Cocoons and webs do not always mean spiders. Love is in the locket. Fishing for steeples and a dead sister found. All this and just a little bit more in our last session. More, as always, below the break.
Everyone was in attendance for this session. 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.
4th of Fall
- The wacky tobacky is taken to Doya and a deal is reached. She offers one of a group of four magic items. Liesl counters with two items and the group will figure out what each item does. Doya agrees but the group picks the first item and she picks the next. Deal!
- The items are the Bat Brooch of Madness, Lost Mask of the Covenant, Primordial Blade of the Ages, and the Unholy Cap of Power (despite it being a shield). (I need to write these up still and will provide once I do. We made these up on the spot with some rolls and healthy does of ruling).
- The group selects the Blade. It is normally just a +1 dagger. You may call upon its power once to utterly undo and erase the next creature that you successfully attack with it. When you do, you suffer the same fate.
- Doya picked the Mask as it matched Liam’s eyes. While worn, one stat of your choice increases to 18. When removed, one stat of your choice decreases to 3.
- The group camped nearby for the night.
- The items are the Bat Brooch of Madness, Lost Mask of the Covenant, Primordial Blade of the Ages, and the Unholy Cap of Power (despite it being a shield). (I need to write these up still and will provide once I do. We made these up on the spot with some rolls and healthy does of ruling).
5th of Fall
- As learned later, the Temple bell tolls eight times at dawn.
- While heading back to Ragged Hollow, the party hears a man scream up ahead on the path they are following.
- A young man is found, hanging upside down, in a partial cocoon which itself hangs from the canopy crossing over the path. He shouts for help and says that some creepy crawlies caught him.
- With a boost from Liesl and Marlena, Dieter leaps up and graps the man, pulling him out down as the branch breaks and the pair collapse to the ground.
- A bunch of large caterpillars drop out of the canopy, having blended in nearly perfectly. Two are nearly human-sized, the others are about as long as a man’s leg. Liesl recognizes, from their markings, that they are both venomous and poisonous.
- The group defeats the ‘pillars, but the young man does not survive the encounter.
- Liam recognizes the man, he is a fellow student of the arcane arts. His name is RayJay, but Liam has no idea why he would be out here.
- The only things of interest on the corpse are a locket and a folded note.
- The locket is taken by Liam and he opens it. Inside is a picture of a beautiful, young woman. Liam is instantly smitten…head over heels in love.
- It is Brigit, the daughter of, Bridgette, the crime boss of Hendenburgh to whom Markus owed a not insignificant amout of money.
- The note is from Brigit. It says that she would be inclined to RayJay’s romantic interests if he would fetch a magic apple from the Goblin Market in the Gloam Wood.
- Liam knows that she does not mean this because he will be her one true love and the group needs to head to Hendenburgh right away.
- The locket is taken by Liam and he opens it. Inside is a picture of a beautiful, young woman. Liam is instantly smitten…head over heels in love.
- The only things of interest on the corpse are a locket and a folded note.
- The group makes it to Beatrix’s hut. She identifies that Liam has been enchanted. She can bake some cookies in the morning that will break it.
- In the meantime, the locket is taken away from Liam, forcefully, and he is told that he can not have it back until the issue with the Temple is resolved.
- A young man is found, hanging upside down, in a partial cocoon which itself hangs from the canopy crossing over the path. He shouts for help and says that some creepy crawlies caught him.
- The group makes their way to Ragged Hollow. The replenish on some supplies and on supplies that they might need for reaching the Temple steeple…which is now much more exposed.
- They stop by Omar’s to get some potions. There is no answer. Entering, they find him dead. A note explains that he could no longer live with himself after a vision of his second son dying a gruesome and horrible death.
- The group takes three vials of acid and three potions of healing.
- They stop by Omar’s to get some potions. There is no answer. Entering, they find him dead. A note explains that he could no longer live with himself after a vision of his second son dying a gruesome and horrible death.
- They then ask Ernie the Fisherman (about the only resident who has still been out and about) for some assistance.
- They tie a string to Broomy and have Ernie cast him at the exposed steeple. He succeeds on the first attempt. (I thought this would be quite difficult give the repulsion field from the dome, but a natural 19 was rolled for the check.)
- Broomy reels in the string with a rope tied to it. Despite their quite rudimentary arms, Broomy gets it tied to the steeple.
- Liam dons the Mask of the Covenant and is immediately quite strong. Balancing between gravity and the dome’s repulsion, he is able to make his way to the steeple. He reinforces Broomy’s knot work.
- The rest of the group makes their way up.
- A scream is heard from within the Temple below. They start to make their way down the crude and rickety steps of the steeple.
- They find Benjamin, a villager, dead on the way down.
- There are also glowing purple “tumors” growing from the walls. Faintly glowing moths are fluttering about.
- Broomy reels in the string with a rope tied to it. Despite their quite rudimentary arms, Broomy gets it tied to the steeple.
- At the bottom of the steeple’s stairs, they come out into a hallway. Having been here before, the locals know a bit about the rooms on this level. They start to explore, looking for both survivors and whatever is causing all that is happening.
- One room is a greenhouse with three quite large Venus flytraps. The plants smile and start to move towards the party. The door is quickly closed.
- At the next room, Marlena opens the door and screams. Her sister, Ingrid, sits propped against a corrupted looking apple tree. She is dead with plants growing out of her stomach.
- A hissing voice, from within the branches of the tree, says to eat the apples and just give up.
- Everyone starts to feel sleepy and the door is closed.
- Marlena isn’t even given a moment to compose herself before pressing on (some of the players kind of ruined the moment).
- The next room is the observatory. Things look pretty normal.
- Dieter checks the supply closet. There is a loud buzzing coming from an overturned bucket with the closet. Door is closed.
- As everyone pauses for a moment, the group can hear soft whispering. Liesl determines that it is coming from the earhorns sitting on a table. She picks one up and listens…”Hunger and rage, teeth and tentacles, ever seeking, always forward, but never back…Liesl…”
- They tie a string to Broomy and have Ernie cast him at the exposed steeple. He succeeds on the first attempt. (I thought this would be quite difficult give the repulsion field from the dome, but a natural 19 was rolled for the check.)
And that is where we stopped for the night.
They have made it into the Temple! Just as night is about to fall. I’m sure that isn’t important at all.
