Hellfrost Session #5

Warning: Potential spoilers below for the adventure, Lair of the Vermin Lord, from Triple Ace Games.

[This entry is from Rachel. It covers the evening of the 2nd Milcdaeg of Snaermonon to the evening of the 2nd Endedaeg. As always, my comments are italicized and in brackets.]

We had just finished killing the large albino rat in the chamber and were taking stock of our group’s health—Skuli was fatigued and Lia was badly wounded and incapacitated—when Cuthbert, standing in the entrance of the chamber, was suddenly approached by a frost dwarf. Without any introduction, the dwarf blustered about his brother being a thief and stealing his axe and demanded that Cuthbert let him through. Since the two frost dwarves with us, Olvir and Ljot, had been unflinching in joining us in the fights against the rats and orcs, Cuthbert was not inclined to let the blustering dwarf through to harm one of them, but the dwarf shoved his way through. He yelled at Ljot and tried to punch him. Olvir tried to get between them as the two bickered in Dwarven about Ljot taking his brother’s axe while he was sleeping. Apparently Ljot decided this was a good time to tell his brother he had peed in his beer as well, which set him off even more. The newly arrived Brighthammer brother was getting more blustery and enraged when Olvir had had enough and knew that this drama was slowing down our progress in stopping the buck-toothed man and ending the defilement of Ertha’s temple. Olvir cast a bolt at his brother which gave him a bit of pause, and he demanded that Ljot buy him a beer and lend him his axe for a few days to make amends. Olvir said the beer was fine, but the axe would have to wait until it was clear Ljot would not need it to take care of those defiling the temple.

[We had a new player, John, join us this session. John has never played Savage Worlds but is willing to give it a try. He is playing Tor…a Frost Dwarf warrior out looking to prove himself worthy. Tor is another of the Brighthammer brothers but doesn’t admit it or advertise it. I first assumed he’d be catching up with his brothers to assist with the recovery of the defiled temple from Olvir’s vision but John indicated that Tor didn’t really want to be with his brothers. So I came up with Ljot “stealing” Tor’s axe, being the youngest and most mischeivous of the three, and Tor coming after it.]

While all this was going on, Skuli decided to go check out the pile of coins and sparklies that Olvir had been standing in while fighting the albino rat. The pile was covered with rat filth (i.e., piss and shit), but Skuli persevered in checking it out, finding a gold ring inscribed with Inari writing. After holding it a moment, Skuli realized it was a one-time use alchemical device allowing the user to conduct the speak language spell, and stowed it as it seemed like it could be useful.

I was trying to focus on healing and helping Lia regain consciousness, but the brothers’ scuffle was a bit distracting. When Olvir broke it up, the blustery brother came over and introduced himself as Tor Bearstrangler, and asked what was wrong with Lia. I was too distracted trying to help Lia to catch the “Bearstrangler” part of Tor’s introduction, but told him my name and that Lia was badly wounded and unconscious and needed to be healed. For some reason, Tor started pouring ale down Lia’s throat, which was causing Lia to choke until I told Tor if he couldn’t help to get out of the way. It took a little while, but Lia came to and was healed by the blessing of Eostre.

[Being rather overconfident, Tor went ahead and tried to heal Lia despite not being trained in the skill or having any magical ability to do so. The roll came up a dismal failure…a 1 on the Healing die and a 2 on the Wild Die. Not wanting one of John’s first experiences with Savage Worlds to be potentially killing another PC (since his healing attempt did cause another Wound to an Incapacitated character), I just described that Lia was choking to death due to Tor’s ministrations but didn’t require a new Vigor check as Wulfwynn shooed him away rather quickly.]

Despite Tor’s rough treatment of Cuthbert, Cuthbert was steadfastly manning the entrance to the chamber, making sure we were not ambushed, when he heard shouts of “Dargar” from the passage ahead of him and the one to his left. He was hit with several arrows before being able to move back into the chamber where I could heal him. The others, including Tor, moved out into the passages and took out the six orcs.

After regrouping, we took the passage to the left as we had not checked out that part of the caverns yet. There was a chamber to the left filled with lots of mushrooms of different sizes. A couple people wanted to check it out, but Cuthbert shared Gaupa’s bad feeling about it with us, and the need to find the buck-toothed man outweighed curiosity about the mushrooms. Olvir said that some of them were most likely harmful and that they should be checked out by a healer or herbalist rather than those less familiar with all the different types of mushrooms.

In a hallway to the right, we came to double doors with runes on them. Although none of us could read the runes, Olvir recognized them as welcoming those who worship Ertha and warning away those who do not. Like the statues of Ertha above the caverns, these runes had been defaced. Tor and Olvir opened the double doors and Tor barreled into the room about 10 feet. He was startled by a block of the wall coming out from the side and pushing him down and over before retracting. Olvir stayed in the doorway, observing the room for some indication of how best to proceed, when Tor suddenly moved forward again, and was struck by another block of wall that pushed him down and over before retracting. Olvir asked him to stay put so that we could figure out how best to pass through the room without triggering additional attacks. The tiles in the floor of the room all had small depressions in the center, and there was an amulet to Ertha on the floor, which Tor landed on after he was attacked the second time. There were niches on the left and right walls of the room, a couple of feet into the room, that Gaupa was very curious about, according to Cuthbert (we later checked and found nothing in the niches, which I believe was to Gaupa’s disappointment).

Olvir held his amulet and prayed to Ertha for watching over us as we try to stop those who have defiled her temple, I stood next to him and offered prayers to Eostre to guide us as we tried to stop the man responsible for destroying her bounty and attempting to starve many people, and we moved into and across the room with Tor and Ljot. We made it across without any further attacks or injuries, so Olvir and I went back for Cuthbert, Lia, and Skuli, and we all made it across safely.

Through the next double doors we found a passage to the temple, which was a large room with a high ceiling, a number of pillars with Ertha’s image on them, which had been defaced, and the buck-toothed guy at the far end of the room. He was at the altar, where he had a large red sculpture of rats, all attached at the tails. There were four orcs and four pony-sized rats when we first entered the room, although the buck-toothed guy ended up creating a rat wall and entangling several in our party with small rats. I was able to partially entangle the orcs with vines, so a few of our party members were able to approach and engage with them before the rat wall came up, blocking my view of my companions. A few of us made it around the edges of the room and approached the buck-toothed guy. Olvir tried casting bolt at him, but it was not as effective as sometimes. I approached him, filled with the purpose of preventing him from further offending Eostre and causing many to starve, and was able to wound him, at which point the rat wall and entangling rats disappeared. Tor was able to come around the other side of the room and cast the killing blow on the buck-toothed guy, who turned into a large rat as he died. Cuthbert realized that he was a Hamhelypa, a shape-leaper. He had an amulet of Ertha around his neck, which Olvir quickly removed. Olvir also removed the amulet of Vali that the Hamhelypa wore. Tor cut his head off with his axe. Tor, Cuthbert, Skuli, Lia, and Ljot had taken out the orcs and the pony-sized rats, and fortunately no one was badly wounded this time, although Skuli did not look so good. He realized he had been feeling somewhat poisoned/diseased since picking up the ring from the chamber with the albino rat, so he returned it to the pile in there before we left the caverns and tower.

[The big baddie went down rather easily. Wulfwynn’s attack did three wounds and, despite my best attempt and blowing of Bennies, I couldn’t roll well enough for him to Soak it. All of his maintained powers were also disrupted as Wulfwynn’s damage worked out to be something 25+. I didn’t really mind much because the party played it pretty smart with this fight.]

A couple of folks had realized that some of the orcs we fought in the passage had wet lower legs, Tor thought we should check out the pool and what might be beyond it. Despite the trepidations of some in our party (knowing about the guy in Dalsetter whose leg was numb after being stung in a pool in a tower to the south), Tor went through the water and found an area where the orcs had stayed, due to the bedrolls there. Tor found a couple kegs of ale and crates of food stuffs, which a few of us helped him carry back through the pool. It was decided to leave these here at the temple, where Olvir and Ljot stayed to begin cleaning and restoring it. Olvir asked us to return with carts to take all the rat and orc bodies away to be buried, and to bring cleaning supplies, firewood, and a large pot. There was some discussion of methods to clean the coins and sparklies so that they could be salvaged, but after Skuli’s not feeling so good after rummaging through them, we decided that could wait as well.

[The module allows for the PCs to inform the Temple of Ertha about this temple and gain a Favor. I figured that since there was already a Stonehand of Ertha involved and, just as importantly, one that may be played intermittently by a visiting player, why not just go with that. Olvir plans on restoring the temple and “settling” down in it. Assuming the party follows through with helping to clean it out and such, they’ll definitely have an ally in the area.

This also ties it to how I want to develop the campaign. Probably my favorite campaign in recent years (i.e., the last ten years or so) was the Company H campaign. I think a big reason for it was that the PCs were based and developed strong attachments to the community of Hilltop. I want to do something similar with this campaign. Plus, I think the Savage Worlds system is very suited to a “community” type game.]

As we headed back to Dalsetter, we were moving through heavier snows than expected this time of year. We made it to Dalsetter and went immediately to the Four Sheaves. The mayor and most of the townsfolk were there, and more and more came in throughout the evening. We were able to report to the mayor that the man who corrupted Penda had been taken care of, and the evening turned to celebration, with the bill again being footed by the three guys who found the treasure at the tower to the south, and folks cheering the heroes of Dalsetter. We introduced Tor and told the mayor and others that he had helped us at the temple. He introduced himself as Tor Bearstrangler again, this time getting Cuthbert’s and my attention with the surname he chose. We questioned him about the root of this name, making it clear that torturing an animal is not something worth boasting about.

[To the Heroes of Dalsetter!!! Lia told the crowd of their tale and their battle against the Hamhelypa and credited Wulfwynn with taking out the foul thing. Wulfwynn got an additional point of Glory for this and for her selfless act of saving Ulfwynn back when Dunross was destroyed. Cuthbert also got an extra point of Glory for having discovered the poisoning of the grain in Penda’s sheds.

I actually thought that there might be a little PvP action as Tor was telling the tale of his “Bearstrangler” name. Both Wulfwynn and Cuthbert are rather, well, nature-friendly and definitely did not take kindly to Tor’s telling of the tale. Particularly since it seemed to sound, at first, that Tor had sought out a bear to kill just for the glory. Tor fairly quickly indicated that it was actually in self-defense. That seemed to mollify both the Reaper of Eostre (who is sworn to care for plants and animals and tend to nature) and the Host of Gaupa, Spirit of the Forest Lynx (who is devoted to protecting the Forest and preventing animals from suffering)…I have a feeling this will definitely come up again though.]

Eowyn was sitting on the lap of the guy who had been stung, and he (whose name we learned to be Modig, a bit too late) reported that his leg is much better. Cuthbert informed Eowyn of the mushrooms we found at the temple, but she seemed a bit more interested in Modig than the mushrooms at the moment.

Three Finnar entered the Four Sheaves, covered with snow and asked if they could seek shelter here. The mayor agrees. Cuthbert approached and spoke with them briefly before rejoining our group.

A bit later, three Taiga elves came in, also covered in snow. One introduced himself as Snowblade and asked if they could seek shelter here, saying that they are able to pay. The mayor says they are welcome as well. Lia approached them and talked to them briefly. The unusually heavy snow and cold temperatures prompted them to seek shelter here tonight, and they seemed somewhat bemused by Lia’s being a road warden, wondering why he serves humans.

[Could these be plot hooks? Future enemies? Potential allies? Allies against what? Or could it just be some flavor? Only the jackass GM knows for sure…or does he?]

As the evening wears on, and the warmth from the fire and close proximity of so many people and the ale led to a number of people dozing off in the inn, we suddenly heard a horrible, strangled scream come from upstairs. Everyone that had dozed off was abruptly awakened. The first scream was replaced by a woman’s scream that was suddenly cut off before we heard glass breaking and a thud. Modig’s friends raced up the stairs with a couple of guards, Lia and I behind them. Tor ran outside to see if he could see anything, but found that the heavy snow had reduced visibility to just a few feet. The others came up to Modig’s and Eowyn’s room.

Modig’s friends kicked in the door where they knew Modig had been, and we were greeted with a very gruesome sight. Modig was lying on his back on the bed with his chest totally mangled and his ribs broken and pulled apart. Eowyn was sitting on him, her throat ripped out and head and neck at an unnatural angle. It looked as though there were shiny red rubies all over the floor of the room, and it was much colder in the room than it should have been. There was even frost on the door. The window was broken out from the inside. I picked up one of the shiny red bits, which quickly melted and turned out to be blood. This scene was unlike anything most of us had seen before, but the unnatural cold and icy blood prompted me to approach Snowblade, hoping that the Taiga elf, being from colder climes, might know of or have heard stories of something that could cause this.

[I know…I know…this sounds like Alien but the scene was actually inspired by (stolen from) Jim Butcher’s Storm Front and the initial murder scene at the start of the book. That’s it really…one of those things where a specific scene, image, thought that an adventure or scenario of some kind gets built around.]

Snowblade came upstairs to take a look at the scene, although one of Modig’s friends was nasty about his being there at first. I explained that he might be able to help and he backed off for the moment. Once he took a look, Snowblade said that we should pray to our gods, as this was the work of a Velvetama, one of Thrym’s servants. He said that he has heard stories of them—they develop from eggs that are implanted into a person, usually through a sting of some kind. The Velvetama had apparently erupted out of Modig’s chest, killing him, then broke Eowyn’s neck (after clawing or biting her, unless breaking her neck somehow ripped her throat out), and then broke through the window and out. Snowblade reported that Velvetamas have been known to destroy whole settlements, and that they feed on people, but probably their souls or spirits more than their actual physical bodies. The more they feed, the bigger and stronger they become. Snowblade said they are humanoid but are recognizably non-human, so we should know it when we see it.

[Velvetama is really an inside joke. If anyone has read or seen Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and remembers a particular type of creature from London Below AND has a significant other who has rather cold hands or feet and steals your warmth, then you might get the reference. It took Rachel a bit and possibly a wry grin from me to get it despite my frequent accusations that she is one of these creatures.]

We went downstairs and checked with the mayor, who confirmed that all the townsfolk were at the inn and no one was in their homes, and suggested that he summon the guards and set up watches at the front and back doors to the inn. We offered to rotate into the watches with them.

[I believe that the mayor thought that everyone was at the inn. He still needs to check on that. Also, since I only recently decided to focus on a “community” campaign based or centered around Dalsetter, I need to develop it as more than just a vague backdrop. It might actually be impossible for everyone in town to fit into the Four Sheaves. We’ll see…]