Session 6 held on 5/2/19
The Cleric Jannik, Priest of Prios
The Rogue Marklech, Spider Cultist
The Fighter Stanislav, Monster Hunter
The Wizard Falur Ryerson, Ordained Arcanist
October 8, I Watch – Sleep, Arrival of Falur
The party awoke to the approaching sound of horse hooves coming up the road from Bridge. They emerged from their tents to see a crimson robed wizard with two Black Cloaks riding escort. The wizard Falur dismounted from his horse and informed the party that he had been dispatched by the Lady Osis to aid in the investigation of Bridge. Falur relayed that he and his companions had stopped in Bridge the prior evening, and had heard two rumors of witchcraft: 1) mottled salamanders were reported to have fallen from the sky; and 2) the butcher claimed to experience spectral pains in her limbs, as if being pierced by iron needles. Falur asked the party why they were not in Bridge pursuing the witch.
Jannik approached Falur and informed him that they had come to the mine because they suspect that Arpad Summerborn might be in league with the witch, who they suspect is Stella, the Priest’s Daughter. Further, they had heard rumors that the mines might harbor evil magicks of their own, and should be investigated.
Falur consented to aid the witchburners in their exploration of the mine and investigation of Arpad. The party saw that the Black Cloaks were actually of the special group called the Red Flails, an order tasked to escort ordained arcanists to ensure that they used their unnatural magical powers only in the service of Prios.
Falur’s robe is adorned with commendations of his service to Prios, showing that he is a trusted and capable agent of his order. The mark of the arcanists blazoned from Falur’s robe, a triangle with the sun of prios extending beyond its embrace. He had come a long way from his childhood, where he was forced to expose his arcane abilities in order to save the life of someone close to him. His town did not thank him for his act. Rather than stoning him in the street, they were moved to merely lock him up until the Black Cloaks came to collect him. Falur’s decades of study in the mountain town of Redina under the harsh discipline of the Red Flails led him to become a believer in the harsh law of Prios. Magic must be controlled, it threatens the world when left unchecked.
October 8, II Watch – Explore the area of the collapsed mine, underground lake, and cave of skulls
Jannik took the lead, escorting Falur to meet with Arpad Summerborn. Arpad stood a stonesthrow from the mine entrance, flanked by two guards. He appeared to be consulting with elder guard, but would occasionally turn to shout an order to the camp foreman. The foreman was overseeing laborers to repair the deserted mine buildings. Some laborers were reinforcing the old barracks, while others were patching holes in the supply warehouse.
Arpad saw the witchburners approaching, and his eyes widened when he saw the crimson robed wizard, Falur. “Ah Jannik, you have a new companion I see? It is not every day that one sees an Arcanist of Prios. What brings you to this encampment? It will be good to have another fellow about understands that the mysteries of the world can be solved through research and hard effort. These fellows of Bridge banter on about the foul magicks of these mines, but surely you understand that with the careful application of science and research we can tame the world and make it serve us! Don’t you agree?” Falur carefully assented, “Indeed, magic should be controlled or it is a threat to us all.”
Abandoned Oldson Mine
Arpad asked the companions to assist him by scouting the mine and area for threats while his laborers readied the camp. The party assented and began scouting the abandoned mine. They walked beneath an old dried wooden sign that read “Oldson” and continued for a span.
Along the way, Marklech noticed a funnel shaped web that descended into a fissure in the stone. He spoke to the spider and learned that this tunnel had been long abandoned, the hunting was sparse and air too dry for the spider’s liking.
Before long, the party found where the tunnel had collapsed. Marklech sent his eight-legged familiar to investigate through a small crawl space. The familiar discovered that the collapse did not extend too far, and that the air on the other side of the tunnel was moist and filled with the scent of rot and mold.
The group returned to the mine entrance and told Arpad to dispatch some laborers to clear the mine collapse. He agreed to do it as soon as they had the buildings in habitable shape, “first things first.” At the same time, two spearmen descended from a mining trail holding filled waterskins. “Good news, there is a stream just beyond this rise. We won’t have to lower buckets into the river for fresh water as we had feared.” Falur spoke up, “Arpad, surely you know as well as I that quicksilver can be a poison for those who misuse its properties. We should investigate this stream to ensure that it is not tainted.” Arpad was reticent to call quicksilver a poison, but agreed that the stream should be investigated and asked the party to look into the matter.
Falur begged a moment of leave, and said that he wanted to investigate something briefly. He took Jakab and István with him back into the cave, Marklech followed as well. Falur went towards the collapse and performed a lengthy magic ritual, after which his eyes glowed with an inner light. Falur’s Detect Magic spell enabled him to notice that faint motes of magical energy existed within the Cinnabar ore residue left in the mine, and he also noticed that the flails carried by the Red Flail guards were enchanted, that Marklech’s debt tattoos were imbued with latent enchantments, and that Marklech’s spider companion was host to a fey spirit.
The Underground Lake
The party reassembled and began hiking into the hills to investigate the source of the stream. After some time, the trail they were following continued on away from the stream, while the stream ran down from a rocky ravine. The party waded up the stream, against its current into the ravine. A few of them lost their footing on the slick rocks, bruising their shins along the way.
Before long, they noticed that the majority of the water was coming from an adit that had been carved into the side of the ravine. Marklech volunteered to investigate the adit, the party assented and he entered the darkness alone. Marklech crawled through the narrow passage for half an hour before stumbling upon a large underground lake. His light source only illuminated about 60 ft, so he could not see across the lake to determine the vastness of the chamber or whether there was an opposite bank. Where he stood appeared to be a man made drainage tunnel, the cavern had stalactites hanging from the ceiling and a few stalagmites breached the surface of the lake.
Marklech returned and told the party what he had found, they returned to the trail and decided that they would explore a bit more before returning to camp. They continued up the trail away from the camp to explore what else there might be.
The Cave of Skulls
The party saw a natural cave nestled in the rocks ahead of them. Once they had approached within short distance from the cave mouth, they saw that the cave had a shelf carved into each wall. Each shelf held hundreds of stacked boar skulls, interspersed with the occasional human skull. The adventurers looked about for threats, but nothing seemed to happen. Falur heard the sound of some loose rubble falling from above and had the sensation that he was being watched. As Stanislav approached the cave, the human skulls each illuminated. Light flickered from the eye sockets of the skulls as if there were candles burning within. The witchburners noticed that the human skulls had etchings on their pate, but only Falur could read them as they were written in Infernal. Each skull appeared to have a list of sins written on it, Falur speculated that the sins might’ve been committed by the person to whom the skull once belonged.
Stanislav decided to crush in a skull with his maul, and barely dodged the resultant gout of flame. Marklech decided to scout ahead, and saw that around the corridor there were four monstrous skulls adorning the walls as prize trophies. Stanislav identified the monstrous skulls as belonging to: a hill giant, an unidentified jaw-less humanoid, a reptilian Abishi, and an unidentified brutish demon with six upright horns encircling the skull. Marklech called the party forth and they walked through the hallway carefully. They entered a large chamber and saw an altar before them that was unadorned except for a carved out bowl shaped to receive a skull as an offering.
fin.
New Named NPC’s
- Jakab (Black Cloak – Red Flail)
- István (Black Cloak – Red Flail)
GM Thoughts
I’m glad to be back at the table and to have a new player. It is fun to have some exploration that is more simple than the intrigue of Bridge. I put mostly natural obstacles in the session because it feels incongruous with the setting for the cave to be overrun with kobolds or some small threat.
The cave of skulls felt a bit incongruous with the narrative, but I am really curious to see where it goes.
We talked after the session and folks are still having fun, but are frustrated by so many sessions that only have social encounters. Ultimately, I think they want an easy answer. They want to know with certainty what the source of the unrest in Bridge is. I told them that in a sandbox world I am not trying to always provide clean answers. I want them to feel like it is a real lived in world with all the messiness that comes with that. However, I do understand that some variety would be welcome, and I can sympathize with the desire to have a definitive answer.
I will try to frame their options for them next session. They need to hang someone in Bridge who the town council believes is a witch. They can then do any number of things, investigate the army battalion that went missing in the harsh mountains to the east, investigate the forest of symbaroum, delve into the ruins they found during session one. I think that I am going to fiddle with my XP system a bit to encourage players to drive the plot. We will see how that goes.
Shoalmont Games 