Dolmenwood Sessions 39 Through 42
The following is an amalgamation of four session reports from my Dolmenwood game which restarted about two months. I’ve left some minor stuff out but the important bits are here. When I refer to downtime activities, we’re using the Downtime in Zyan procedures as well as the carousing tables from 3d6 Down the Line.
Dramatis Personae
- Utrid (Human Fighter 5)
- Sir Marrow Molossus (Human Knight 5)
- Locke Darkshanks (Human Thief 6)
- Karook (Human Cleric of St. Signis 6)
- Gunkuss Wallerbog (Woodgrue Fighter 4)
Session Reports
When we last left the party before the hiatus, they had just finished participating in Baron Hogwarsh’s tournament and also heisted the manor of a minor noble during the festivities. Sir Marrow was lauded as the champion of the tournament duels. He not only bested Lord Malbleat’s massive son, Crump, and removed his hand, but also killed Garnack the Horse (a well known longhorn mercenary). Marrow was granted the boon of studying a tome passed down through the Hogwarsh family which he will study to learn how to be a proper commander of people.
The party reveled and drank the night away after the tournament, deciding to spend the next week in the city of High Hankle doing some downtime activities.
Utrid tried to gather information about the strange and off-putting skull necklace that he took from the neck of a corrupted centaur. He discovered that stories say such centaurs are often granted gifts from the horrible Nag Lord, and use by those who are not allies of the chaos godling can result in ill effects.
Locke used his newly earned goodwill with the guildmaster of the High Hankle thieves’ guild (Bagsley Corundum) to make progress on learning a new knife technique under Baglsey’s tutelage.
Similarly, Gunkuss practiced throwing his voice with a bard that participated in the music competition.
Karook received news from his order that the undead problem around Fort Vulgar had subsided thanks to the efforts of his order, and that clerics were now searching for lost shrines in the North-West of the wood. He also hears that an ancient creature or person is rumored to have reappeared in the Dolmenwood, one that disappeared for centuries…tall, pale and heavily cloaked…much like the odd Woseman that the party met on the road many weeks ago.
In between downtime sessions (they spent about a month in High Hankle after the tournament) the party ventured out into the surrounding farmlands to explore a bit. Some highlights from these misadventures and further downtime:
A weird, gruff sheep herder who uses the lustrous wool of his odd sheep to make magical garments that change one’s appearance.
An inn run by a goatfolk woman who seems to have a good relationship with a pack of talking wolves who roam the woods nearby. Utrid spoke with the wolves and asked for a meeting with the pack alpha. He was told that if he brought particularly unusual or tasty meat, he would be allowed a meeting. The party seems interested in convincing a talking wolf to join them in their travels.
On the way back to High Hankle after a foray, they met another group of adventurers that the party deemed suspicious. There was a bit of a standoff where the hot-headed Marrow blocked the road and demanded to know their business, using his status as a representative of the Baron. The other group refused, but eventually backed down from trying to continue on their intended path and instead turned back rather than risk a conflict with the PCs.
On the way back into High Hankle after a trip out, they came upon guards harassing a young shorthorn goatfolk man (Clover). The party sussed out that the guards were shaking the shorthorn down and Marrow once again used his standing as a knight to force them to back off. The young man was grateful, as was his family, and he ended up joining the group as Karook’s new retainer. Here’s hoping that Clover is luckier than Karook’s last two retainers.
During carousing, both Locke and Marrow were whisked away to fae realms. Locke spent almost a week sleeping in fields of poppy flowers while Marrow received a token from the Queen of Blackbirds to summon a fairy barge for a one-way trip (which will come into play in a big way very soon).
Toward the end of their stay in the city, the party was found by Griddlegrim the goblin (from the very start of the campaign when the party went through the Winter’s Daughter module). Griddlegrim was there on behalf of Lady Snowfall-at-Dusk to beseech the party to help her and Sir Chyde find a way out of her Frigian prison and back into the Dolmenwood. The party agreed to look into the matter. Griddlegrim took a dagger from the party and left a magical copy in its place; when someone touches it, it will disappear and Griddlegrim will know the party wants to talk to him.
After several weeks, Locke and Marrow finished their training and the group was ready to head back North to check on their newly refurbished and reclaimed manor near Prigwort. Gunkuss didn’t roll so well in his downtime training and didn’t finish learning how to throw his voice, so he convinced the bard to travel with the group with a good reaction roll so that he could continue learning from her.
On the road back North, the party stopped by to visit the Magpie King in the bole of the giant oak that is his home. Gunkuss remembered that the Magpie King seemed obsessed with fairy silver, and had some to offer him. After a bit of tense bartering, the King ultimately traded the party a magpie whistle to summon magpies and a strange acorn that screams when the cap is removed for some fairy silver. The party considered just robbing him, but ultimately decided against it.
Leaving the road to find adventure, the group camped near dozens of burial mounds in the woods. The next morning, they investigated and met a strange jug-headed creature - a barrow-bogey with a huge sword - who warned the party away from the mounds which the creatures made their home. The barrow-bogey off-handedly asked whether the group had encountered his true love in the nearby woods - a maid named Pollith with a terrifying father, a fearsome Audrune of the mysterious Drune cult. The group wanted nothing to do with this odd romantic entanglement involving fae tomb-dwellers and left.
They also encountered a Grimalkin roasting humanoid looking limbs (“They’re just crookhorn limbs, I promise!”) and very tactfully refused any offers to join the feline fairy. The party ended this stretch of the journey by stopping at their friend Mollish Nag’s inn for a meal and a rest.
I’ll end this post still a few sessions behind, but we will catch up soon!