In the last session, the party ventured into the mountains, befriended a lovelorn stone giant, plundered a ruined temple beset by gnolls, and got a lead on the schemes of the anticleric Corby. Now having made a great ruckus in the temple, how will they get away? Will they track down the anticleric, or will they let this opportunity slip out of their grasp? Join this week's journey to find out...
The Party
Agatha, human paladin with a smiling-masked samurai helm, played by Anne
Ingvar Duram, human cleric with an extravagant tricorn hat, played by Jackson
Nachman, human mage with an open-faced plain helm, played by Ali
Sidonius of Willow Creek, very buff fighter
Dany Mossé, human ranger with a spike-and-plumed helm, played by Finn
Dra'kon Deznitsz, beetlefolk cleric with a spiked, tasseled helmet, played by Felix
Casualties
None
Loot
Ancient grave goods, 375gp
Two brothers-in-arms
Some suspicions
The Game
24 Mid Summer 1113 (Team Holy)
Where last we left off, the party had just acquired the Wand of Circe, but the destruction of the marble statue in which it was hidden created a whole lot of noise. They swiftly climbed back onto the roof, and narrowly avoided detection by a group of gnolls also coming onto the roof. As they snuck away, however, they were discovered by a trio of gnoll guards.
Putting two and two together, the gnolls realized the party were responsible for slaying their fellows within the temple (but did not yet know the party had found what they were looking for), but were unwilling to fight in that moment, with numbers against them. They instead demanded a weregild of 100gp per dead gnoll.
The party feigned acceptance, but instead launched a surprise attack, with Dany's great skill in defeating humanoid enemies coming in great help. They tossed the dead gnolls in a nearby hole and scampered off to their camp, split ways with Sinead the stone giant, and made the three day journey back to Chamrousse without gnoll pursuit or dangerous encounters.
27 Mid Summer 1113
Back at Chamrousse, they decided to hand the Wand of Circe over to Inquisitor Michel for identification and safekeeping. It turned out to be a variant wand of polymorph: it could transform humans into animals or bestial creatures (like gnolls) and vice versa, and could do so for large groups with a single casting, but only until the time of the next new moon. The party speculated that the gnolls, and through them the anticleric Corby, was trying to infiltrate human society.
Nachman jokingly suggested making a fake wand and planting it in the temple so that the gnolls would leave and lead them back to their lair; this quickly stopped being a joking matter, and with a loaned scroll of Nystul's magic aura from Idred's library, they set out for the temple the next morning, once again arriving without hazard.
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| And then we'll switch it out for a fake one! |
2 High Summer 1113
Coming back to the temple, they noticed the gnolls had tightened security: there were now more lookouts, including several on the roof. Nevertheless, when nightfall came, Dany was able to take the 'Wand of Circe' (a falsely enchanted willow switch) and hide it just under an existing dig.
3 High Summer 1113
By noon the next day, one of the gnolls found it, and recognized it as a magical item. Within a handful of hours, the gnolls had packed up and left, carrying a great big chest of loot with them. The party decided to follow a couple of hours after them, and so had a couple hours to burn exploring what remained on the temple.
They discovered a group of armored skeletons in a sealed, secret room, which Ingvar's turning revealed were animated. The skeletons, being outnumbered and likely outmatched, begged clemency, asking that the party take their grave goods, but not their weapons and armor.
This led to a lot of discussion about metaphysics and the afterlife, but the party eventually agreed to the skeletons' request, and sealed the room behind them, feeling vaguely guilty about the whole affair.
5 High Summer 1113
After a rainstorm on the 4th which nearly washed away the tracks (though Dany once again came in handy), the party followed the gnoll party's distinct, muddy trail through a cool, misty day along a tributary river ... and right into the side of a mountain. The tracks seemed to disappear right into the sheer stone right where the river welled up from an underground spring.
The party debated how to break the suspected illusion, and Agatha cut the debate short by flinging a rock through the illusory cliff.
On the other side was a tight pass through which the river ran, and beyond that a waterfall and a craggy grove. They passed statues of knights with gemstones for eyes, trapped in horrified expressions, and grew suspicious of the colorful butterflies and verdant garden ahead of them. Ingvar's augury confirmed their suspicions, they decided to instead climb up a steep rock face. They noticed several gnoll corpses in the nearby waterfall, and suspected that the gnolls' master had realized their deception in the short time since they arrived.
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| What could it be?! |
Picking their way through the rocks in the thick mist, the party came across an altar and statue dedicated to the ancient goblin king Agak, who once ground many kingdoms beneath the heel of evil. A nearby cave of forboding appearance was just asking for Ingvar's find traps, and they learned to hail Agak lest a rockfall land on their heads.
Deep within the cave, following the gnolls fresh tracks, they found a pair of enchanted statues which Ingvar realized would sound an alarm when unauthorized persons passed through. They decided not to call attention to themselves, and instead turned back down a fork. At a dead end, they found a shimmering mirror in which they appeared as grey silhouettes... and yet more silhouettes appeared, not corresponding to any of the party.
They sought to communicate with the ghostly figures, which denounced the party as demons and tricksters. After some negotiation and presenting their holy symbols, they learned that the two figures were the knights Hulodrin and Vertoful, of Claude Malevol's court at Chamrousse. According to Marshal Boroth, these knights had gone out questing to bring back Corby's head some months before, and then disappeared.
The party persuaded the knights to step through the mirror, beyond which lay an amnesiac realm of shadows. The pair were haggard and half-starved, but very happy to be back among the living and out of that ghastly trap. Though the knights wanted to storm the cave and take Corby's head, the party urged caution.
Thus the party, with two new friends, departed the hidden mountain grove, learning all about the deadly garden from the knights, and began their journey back to Chamrousse to make a full report.
That night, they spotted torchlight on the mountain not far from their camp; unusual for night-hunting gnolls. In fact, these were a group of beetlefolk, led by Septen Broadhsell, whom Ingvar had met back in Stonehell.
These architect/engineers had quite a tale of woe: they were contracted via the Cobblers' Guild (a politically powerful organization in Cascabel, and a major front for organized crime) to survey this region of the alps and possibly do some demolitions in one area. But once their identified their (metaphorical) quarry, the beetlefolk were set upon by stone giants! These creatures expelled the beetlefolk by force, insisting that it was a 'forbidden zone', and blew up all their stores of smokepowder, along with the rest of their supplies! They had been wandering, hungry and lost, through the mountains since the 27th, a full week.
7 High Summer 1113
The two groups shared their campfire and some supplies, and continued on their way back to Chamrousse. The party split off to seek out Sinead, whom they found camping beneath the stars. They inquired about the stone giants, and learned that those were Kethlîn's family; her grandmother was a great leader among the druids, and her line had guarded that mountain for centuries stretching out of memory. Underneath that mountain, Sinead was told, an ancient demon named the Tormentor had been trapped in ancient times, and would awaken if its resting place was ever disturbed.
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| Hmmm, what could that be? |
At first the party thought this was another of the shadowy demons they had encountered in Clifton, with letters and numbers on its body; but Sinead quickly disconfirmed. This was a much different beast, a creature the size of a mountain which tore up the earth with metal hands.
10 High Summer 1113
The party returned to Chamrousse not long after Septen's group did, and cross-referenced what they knew. The beetlefolk were horrified to learn they had almost awakened a demon, and redoubled their insistence on collecting hazard pay from their employer: according to the Cobblers' Guild contract, this had to be collected from the original employer, not the middleman.
The party was not happy to learn that the contract bore the name of Dragoon Captain Fen, who had so genially engaged the party to 'befuddle' the Ultraviolet Flame cultists just a few sessions ago.
After waving the beetlefolk goodbye down the river, the party made their full report to the Count's inner circle. They resolved to gather a crack team of crusaders to scale the mountains and assault the grove. Whether the party wanted to join in or not, they had some downtime while the team got summoned.
Dra'kon built rapport with Inquisitor Michel, Agatha gained a great local reputation for her generous donations and work feeding the poor, and Ingvar spent time going to the local cathedral and getting into theological arguments with the priests.
Unexpectedly, a noble popped up a few days in and also got involved in these discussions, and afterwards went out feasting and drinking with Ingvar. This turned out to be none other than Count Claude Malevol, ruler of Chamrousse, who offered Ingvar a boon of his choice, which Ingvar elected to think over.
17 High Summer 1113
With the party rested and recently leveled (as well as being much, much lighter on coin), and the crusade team formed up, we broke for the week.
Will the party return to the grove and join the assault? What's going on with Fen and the demon? Join us for next week's session of Cascabel!
Takeaways
The weather tables are working just as I wanted them to: this session we had rain interfering with tracking, and atmospheric mist as they explored the grove. The players were surprised to hear that the latter wasn't a location feature, but a pre-rolled weather event. That, plus the players wound up asking lots of questions and discussing the setting's metaphysics after interacting with the skeletons. There's curiosity about the world and how it affects them, and some respect for it as something existing outside of the players. I really feel that the campaign is starting to come into itself, and I feel really good about this session in general.
Also, if the exploration of the grove seemed a bit uneventful, that's because I failed to roll a single random encounter. Must have rolled at least ten times, not a single 1 on a d6!
I also feel that the campaign is coming into itself in another way. Thus far, it's been a lot of largely unconnected threads, but now they've begun to cross in largely organic ways (if not for a wilderness encounter, the party wouldn't have met Septen again and learned about this demon business!). Things are looking up, and I feel very vindicated in making this campaign the way I have!
That's all I have for today. Until next time, have a great week!
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