Dolmenwood Sessions 43 and 44
As I try to catch up to our current sessions, I’ve once again condensed multiple session reports into one post. Once I catch up, I plan to let the session reports breathe a bit more and get into behind the scenes stuff such as procedures and GM decision-making.
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 Report
After staying the night at Mollish Nag’s Inn, The Jaunty Horn, the players send their wagon on ahead to their next destination (the town of Dreg) with some retainers to guard it. The party takes a detour through the wilderness to get some exploration in before heading to Dreg. Cutting North into the forest, they come upon a group of goblins arguing with some strange ashen-skinned creatures who had tap-like noses about a trade. Utrid intervenes, interested in what is on offer - the goblins were attempting to trade some fairy fruit for a bag of herbs, but negotiations were at a standstill. While Utrid didn’t really assist in resolving the bartering session at all, he did trade some fairy silver to the goblins for one of the fruits - a forever ripe peach, glistening with syrup.
The Anti-Prism
Continuing on, the green of the forest starts to give way to patches of graying undergrowth and bone-like trees. Soon, the party find themselves in a large section of the forest where all of the color has bled away. A twenty foot tall transparent crystal juts from the earth in the center of the monochromatic landscape, swirling with psychedelic colors. Gunkuss, always reliable when it comes to touching weird shit, walks up and places a hand upon the prism. The woodgrue immediately becomes listless as the color drains out of him and his belongings; nothing more than a pliant husk remains. Gunkuss is easily led away from the crystal by Karook, but is now no more responsive than a rock.
Concerned, the party next sought to destroy the crystal in the hopes that it would help their friend. They chop down much of the surrounding dead wood and build a bonfire around the crystal, hoping to heat it up and make it easier to break. After giving the fire some time to work, several party members strike the crystal at the same time - an arrow from Locke’s magic bow, a thrown magic warhammer from Karook, and a hurtled axe from Utrid. The magic weapons make small cracks in the crystal, while Utrid’s axe throw does nothing despite the immense force behind it. At the moment it is struck, the crystal fires off rays of energy at the attackers. Most of the party dodges, but Karook is struck by a red ray; he flares with bright red light for a moment and his skin takes on a rosy hue as he is overcome with rage. He continues to strike at the crystal, more rays blasting at him. In the end, while some small fractures were made in the building-sized crystal, the party decided to move on and hope that they could cure Gunkuss some other way.
To Dreg and The Fairy Barge
The party next travels to Dreg to meet up with their cart, Karook still seething and Gunkuss being led like a zombie. In town, they hear about something called the “Gray Blight” which has afflicted some travelers and wildlife in the area - determining that it’s the same curse that has affected Gunkuss. They stay the night in Dreg with the intention of using Marrow’s token from the Queen of Blackbirds to call a fairy barge the next day. In the common room of the inn, Locke decides to mess with Karook (spilling his drink, bumping into him) and Karook just barely avoids attacking Locke (now, when slighted, Karook has to pass a save to not turn violent).
The next morning, Karook awakens (still furious at everything), and angrily invokes the Benediction of St. Primula (Remove Curse) on Gunkuss. Thankfully, being anointed with curse removing holy milk restores the color and life to Gunkuss. Before leaving town, Karook hears a voice speaking to him…asking him to let the rage take over. He ignores it for now…
The group gathers at the river outside of town, where Marrow tosses his fairy token into the water. Ten minutes later, the arrival of a fairy barge is heralded by the calls of blackbirds. The hairless and shimmering elf captain of the vessel, Trick-of-the-Light, greets Marrow and asks where the group is to be ferried to. After some discussion, the captain agrees to take the group far to the North of their current location (and farther North than they’ve been in the wood) - to a village called Odd. The players figured that if they have a free ride on a fairy barge, they might as well take full advantage of it.
The strange barge manages to accommodate the whole party, plus their retainers, horses, and wagon. Some fae trick seemingly makes the barge larger on the deck and inside than it would appear from the shore. Alongside the captain, the barge is crewed by a handful of barge hands and three knights in the service of the Queen of Blackbirds (led by Murder-of-Ravens in their armor of scintillating fish scales). The captain warns the party that they will need to travel through the swamp of Hag’s Addle, which was once the domain of the Queen of Blackbirds.
The barge sets off, passing by a mill on the bank of the river that the party notes but ignores. In the hope of seeing more of the wood, Marrow manages to convince the captain to take a slight detour off of the River Hameth to Fog Lake (I used a reaction roll modified by Marrow’s charisma to determine how amenable to the detour the captain was). Before entering Hag’s Addle proper, the barge heads up Ransom Creek toward Fog Lake.
A Quick Dip in the Swamp
About an hour into the side trip, a woman suddenly appears floating in the water (the party was surprised) and implores the group to help recover her belongings from her flooded house. She gestures toward a decrepit house, a good 20 feet underwater in the creek. The strangeness of the situation aside…Locke, Utrid, and two of the Elves suddenly leap into the water to help her! The four of them had failed a save vs spells, now entranced by the figure and eager to move toward it. Now underwater, the four entranced people could see that other people were inside the house - three more entrancing people beckoning, and a handful of normal humans posed in chairs or on beds as if sleeping.
The rest of the party takes a beat to respond, before Karook, Gunkuss, and two of the Elf knights leap into the water to rescue their comrades. Meanwhile, the entrancing figures start to pull their victims into the mud that makes up the floor of the house; shaping it around them and easing them into it with soothing words. Back on the barge, the barge hands tossed ropes into the water and Marrow stood on the deck ready to pull on ropes as needed (Marrow didn’t want to jump into the water in plate armor).
Under the surface, the rescuers reached their comrades and focused on trying to wrestle them out of the mud and the grasp of the swamp sirens. Ropes were tied around Locke, Utrid, and one of the entranced elves, to try and get them out of the water faster. The monsters struck at the rescuers, trying to beat them away from their prey. The encounter devolved into a push and pull of trying to fight off the monsters while pulling the entranced people out of the water. As blows were struck against the beautiful figures, the illusions that draped them flickered and showed rough humanoid entities composed of writhing and wriggling lampreys. In order to keep the enchanted players from getting too bored, I had them roll contested strength tests against their would-be-rescuers in order to try and get away from them and back to the swamp sirens. At one point, Locke and Utrid were both pulled fully up onto the boat but then managed to break free of their comrades and dive back into the water (we had even forgotten that Utrid’s magic armor makes him impossible to restrain, so he should have broken out even earlier!).
Finally, one of the creatures was killed, the illusion fully fading…and the enchantment that entranced Locke failed, freeing him. At this point, the group realized that killing the creatures was the best way to free their comrades so they attacked as best they could while holding their breath underwater. The creatures fought to the end (passed their morale checks and they were in their lair). In the aftermath, they rescued the people who were posed in the house and were apparently in some sort of underwater stasis. The party also found quite a nice hoard of treasure, worth nearly 10,000 gold, plus a strange icy potion.
Fog Lake and New Age Crystal Healing
Exhausted from the ordeal, the party continued on to Fog Lake and planned to stop there to sleep for the night. They vowed to return the rescued people to their home settlement (The Woodcutter’s Encampment) before continuing their journey, which the elves easily agreed to after the party helped rescue the enchanted crew members. Before bedding down, they noticed a series of caves along the lakeshore which have strange crystal formations near them. They also spotted a small stream flowing away from the lake and into a hole in the ground, and two people peering down into the hole. Calling out to the travelers, the party found out that the people were there to avail themselves of the healing power of the crystals of Fog Lake. “They say they can cure any ailment! They’re full of good energy!” The party questions the decision-making of these people as the strangers then descend into the hole in the ground in search of good vibes.
The party makes camp and spends an uneventful night on the barge, mentally preparing themselves to enter Hag’s Addle the next day…