During the prior session, our heroes explored a “village” of sorts…one completely surrounded by a wooden palisade with no gate other than the four ogres passing children over the fortification. That was the start of the strangeness. An apparently cowed populace of at least some deformed individuals, attacks by vicious toddlers with rather sharp teeth, and a terrified man looking to escape right now all proceeded the group rescuing one of the missing Kosma children, the middle child Vencel. Aerial scouting by a shape-changed Faelan discovered a farm, not too far away, that looked as though it might be the home of the ogres. Putting Vencel’s safety first, they decided to head back to Borsod. Camping for the night, we ended the session with sounds of two of the giant moth creatures flying overhead.
As usual, my GM comments are in [brackets and italics]. There are potential spoilers for The Vault of Larin Karr below the break.
During his night watch Raspin hears the sound of two of the moth creatures.
A scream – “PLEASE – NO –“ [followed shortly thereafter.]
Raspin wakes the party including Vencel Kosma, who has been sleeping with Cailana.
Faelan changes into an owl and begins circling the camp, amongst the lower tree branches looking for the speaker. [Except the hills in which the party was camped really aren’t wooded. 😉] A tentacle smacks him down, but he recovers and climbs higher, circling in an effort to get a better look at what hit him – spying a centipede like tentacle horror. [A rather large, nearly twenty feet in length, centipede-like tentacle horror.]
The party decides to head back to the road, where it can make better time. Two of the centipede things ambush us but are quickly dispatched by Cailana and Wink. Hearing the moth things – the party seeks to get out of the open hills, discovering a small cave, where they decide to rest until daylight.
Later we hear another voice, the gruff voice of an ogre –
“WE KNOW YOU’RE AROUND HERE. IT AIN’T HOSPITABLE TO TEAR UP OUR HOME. MAMMA WANTS TO TALK TO YOU. AND WE WANT THE BOY BACK TOO.”
[An ogre and at least one of the large centipede-like tentacle horrors passed by where the group was hiding, cramped in the small cave. They did not, however, spot the cave or the group.]
The rain finally lets up. Wink and Raspin switch watches. [At the risk of disappointing those who do not like the rain, the forecast has rain for the foreseeable future.]
Three hours later, Raspin and Serena switch watches.
Daybreak of the 29th. No Rain. No sound [of ogres or other monsters]. Party heads back to the road, where they discover a mutilated head on a stake. We proceed full speed to Borsod, at night we seek cover.
[The head was rather mutilated, but Cailana was pretty sure that it was the man she had encountered inside the palisade who had apparently fled on his own.]
During the second watch, Cailana spies a moth, a twenty-foot tentacled thing with a deaths head on the wings. A little ogre is riding the moth, which screeches when passing over the party. More disturbingly, two more answering screeches are heard!
Faelan changes into a bird and spies three of the moths, all with ogre riders, approaching from three different directions. From one direction, he spies three additional tenta-pedes approaching. While attempting to lure one of the moths and its rider, back within range of the party’s ranged weapons, he is wounded.
[Little ogre meaning not as large as a normal ogre but still quite a bit larger than a human. The party now has confirmation that the moths and ogres were working together.
Faelan attracted the attention of moth and ogre-rider by flying over, changing back to his normal human form within sight, and then transforming back to an owl to fly off. Unfortunately, the moth outpaced the owl and Faelan the owl was struck and lost concentration on his spell and reverted to his normal form. He crashed to the ground as the moth flew past. Fortunately, the encounter didn’t leave him too badly wounded.]
Serena takes out a moth and its rider comes crashing into the hill. Cailana takes out a second approaching moth and its rider crashes into the hill as well. Wink vaporizes the first ogre rider, Raspin pulverizes the second, noticing the ogre’s weird mutation (tiny hands on the side of its head). The third moth reaches the rock narrowly missing Cailana with its tentacles and biting attack. After exchanging a frustrating series of blows, Cailana dispatches the third ogre and Wink vaporizes the remaining moth.
The three tentapedes reach us, Raspin takes down all three. We make for the road and begin travelling, not wanting to linger.
The party makes it back to Borsod around midnight.
Crossing the bridge, Cailana hears a sneeze from underneath it. Cailana grabs Vencel and high-tails it to the Inn. Serena spies three of Mama’s ogre children mutants under the bridge. Serena drops one, but the other two slip underwater and move out of sight down river.
Cailana bursts into the inn and is narrowly missed by a crossbow bolt from Rumble, who is on guard. Cailana reports in to the Baroness, leaving Vencel to race back to the party. We regroup, meet up with the Baroness and Vencel at the inn, and proceed to the temple. The Baroness relays that Miklos’ head was found in the town square. [I believe she said it had been found a couple of days prior.] While Jolana tends to Vencil, we relate what we found to the Baroness. She tells us that historically, it has only been travelers (transients) that have gone missing. She identifies the orcs standard as the White Fang Tribe. News of Mama, the ogres, the palisade, the tenta-pedes and tenta-moths is disturbing news to her. The Baroness grows very concerned by the news, disturbed by the threat these new-to-her creatures pose to the valley.
[The comment about travelers going missing was related to speculation about who might make up the “human” population at the palisade. The Baroness noted that there had been no reports of inhabitants of the valley going missing in large numbers. However, travelers periodically would not arrive at their destination. Additionally, there could easily be many cases where travelers have gone missing and no one was aware of it. Of course, the valley is a wilderness–a potentially dangerous one at that–so those going missing might not be just due to these ogres.
It was also noted that while many threats do exist in the valley, they typically leave the settlements alone unless provoked in some manner. Given that there is little if any reason for anyone to travel in the Mélyen Hills, this palisade settlement and the ogres could have been there for quite some time. Even the Vadőr brothers who travel the wilderness more than any would have had little reason to travel on that side of the Quail River.
The group also discussed the possibility of speaking with Trinu, Borsod’s resident “witch,” to ask her if she might know of anything that would account for the physical deformities seen on the ogres and one woman in the palisade (eye in her temple). Some thought was even given to asking Trinu for directions to her cousin, Saara, who (I believe) Jolana previously mentioned was an “evil” witch type. All to be done in the morning, if at all.]
The party needs rest. We decide to rest at the temple, with the Baroness, Jolana, and Vencel. During Cailana’s watch there is a loud banging on the temple door.
[And that’s where we stopped for the night. There was some talk of the session not ending on a cliffhanger and thus the banging on the door. 😉 I guess I better figure out what that’s all about. Could the ogres have discovered some long lost manners? Knocking instead of breaking down the door? Wouldn’t that be something? Maybe it is Mamma come for a talk.
The Baroness was pretty clear that she feels that the group needs to deal with this threat, coming just short of directly ordering the group to deal with the threat.
Beer Log: Beers shared this session using, as always, our hit, miss, crit, and fumble rating scale.
- Council Brewing In the Blind: A very nice IPA that had been sitting in the fridge for a few weeks. Nice floral, pine, and grassy flavor to it. A hit.
- Ballast Point Sour Wench: A slightly tart and fruity berliner weisse. I suppose that it is fair to say that I’ve gotten a bit spoiled by some incredibly flavorful beers of this style so this one was a little underwhelming but still a hit.
- Maui Brewing Imperial Coconut Porter: I have to admit that I was really disappointed in this one. To be fair, it has been in the fridge for months and so perhaps some of the flavor had faded. When I think Coconut Porter, I hope for something close to Death by Coconut. This wasn’t a bad beer at all, just more imperial porter than imperial coconut porter. A hit–despite my, perhaps unfair, expectation. 😉]
