Ilmatra’s (Last) Hope
Dead :( Pines
We don’t know much of each other besides what was gleaned from the 40hr walk it took to get here, and we’re escorted by villagers. We look around the other adventurers though and see:
Sten Vos, a 50-something wiry human with a salt and pepper beard, a weatherbeaten outdoorsy sort with a bunch of blue tattoos - tribal clan markings all around his face and shoulders, and he carries with him, with two single-bladed axes in belt holsters and leather armour. He’s very forthcoming and has shared his background and he’s wandering looking for find his own story/legend but he fears he’s slowing in his dotage and is losing time to bang out his mythos.
Kain Pipeskald: A ruddy haired dwarf with a maintained beard and plaits, and well dressed in bright garb (along with leather armour). He carts a spear with him but has bagpipes strapped across him, the bladder in front of him and he has a pipe harness to tootle along mid-fight if required. Kain is, as we are currently round the campfire, cooking. He loves chat as he’s a gatherer of lore. He loves to adventure as he wants to witness the next great saga and write the next skald.
Prof Kram Tomebinder: A fellow dwarf and academic, with a thick overcoat over his oversized but badly tailored robes. The wand he carries seems too big for his meaty fingers and the diadem on his brow looks elfish or human, not dwarfish. At the fire he takes frantic notes in a metal-bound journal (well, binder of papers). As they’re both “historians” of a kind the Prof and Kain talk lots between them.
Wilson Whilom: A weird looking elf (short hair, not so pointy ears), aloof as elves would be. Good at finding people, so hence a job that calls for finding people sounds right up his skills. Not very chatty (and very laid back) but fine at foraging and at night sits right next to the campfire looking out worriedly.
Hob Wassop: A young teen human, gawky and only lives one village over from the inn where we met and till recently was a miner (as well as a minor). He carries with him a shield which looks a bit like a former trapdoor. He talks incessantly about his friend Tim, who tells him to do stuff (a big influence), yet Hob is extremely cagey about any details of Tim when it comes up in conversation (mostly by him).
We cut back to 40hrs previously when we meet at Ilmatra’s Hope, in the inn/general store run by Mr Iaus Innskeep. We are shown into a backroom and Iaus is the one to check we’re up for the job. Kids are missing, a search party is being organised, need all the help they can get. Hob is in the bar, drinking alone, overhears this and stumbles over volunteering his services. Kain volunteers his services. Sten clarifies all the kids have gone missing? (yes, all 14, up and vanished, according to the mayor). Iaus’s own son is missing and will be coming along. Not all the parents are coming, since most are farmfolk, and Prof notes that it sounds rough out there based on how Iaus is talking. Sten reveals his has a daughter, Kain takes some notes on this bit of the story, and Iaus offers to take us all to the mayor once everyone has confirmed they’ll join us. Iaus inventories the store for items worth taking and we head off to see the mayor.
We reach a one-storey stone cottage, within we hear talking and open the door, conversation centred on the mayor and as he looks up he recognises us as adventurers. Apart from Hob who’s “Jessop’s boy from Little Winching”. We’re invited in to be briefed, Iaus leading the search party as the mayor would ‘slow us down’. Kain remembers stories of ghost towns and missing kids, and has even passed through such towns. There’s no specific ‘monster’ related to child-grabbing. Kain shares one about a village with a large windmill on a hill, and the village was ‘missing’ but they were all strung up in the windmill. Macabre. Kain asks if the town has a windmill, and doesn’t - thankfully. One local human woman blames the church, oddly, and on probing further, a dwarf lady-nun (Tsavorite Cavernsfall) contradicts this argument saying the church draws the light of Ilmatra to protect the town. Another dwarf (the priest, a man, Father Sindri Westpike) moans that this person bewailing the church is also descrating it (but the woman says it’s not wanted - hence the vandalism). Kain suggests that a church taking a bunch of kids is an odd gambit but ‘more realistic than Kain’s stories’. Apparently only an hour ago the kids went missing, we’re right in the nick of time. The mayor requests the internecine squabbles come to an end and we get on the road: the priest-dwarf and the lady-dwarf. We leave the cottage.
In the middle of town, Kain starts a wee bagpipe tune to call the town in, and Sten and Wilson spread out for tracks and Sten finds footprints heading off to the east - adults and multiple kids heading into forested area. We look in and they’re pines, many of which are dead. Kram is asking locals if they have heard rumours, sounds in the night, stories the kids have been sharing etc. and learns the church is unfinished after 10 years, despite vandalisms and setbacks, but expect pilgrims to bring a bit more wealth to the town. He also establishes that most of the kids under 16 is the cutoff where they’ve gone missing, the remainder staying, but the loss of the kids will doom the town to being emptied out. The ‘dead pines’ yield a lot of rumours - mutilated animal bodies, those who go in are rarely seen again, a witch lives there doing witchy stuff, the criminals get gibbeted in and around the pines to ward off trouble. Hob confirms each and every one of these rumours, sharing which villager shared this rumour with him. All the adults are accounted for, so the adult tracks leading with the kids are not from town…and booted. Kain also pours tots of brandy for us to toast, as it’s wintry, drizzling, winter coming in, days shortening etc. Kain asks about Hob’s adventuring with his sword and he notes he had to raid his Grandad’s house for the trapdoor shield and sword, but a nice belt. Kain thinks Hob’s renown will spread three villages over - as far as Chipping Mortonbury perhaps, unless the kids are round the corner I guess.
Half an hour rolls by and Iaus pops out handing us a bottle each, another healing potion to add to our collections, Hob’s fitting neatly on his belt. The remainder of the party - 7: Iaus Innskeep, the dwarf-religiouses in heavy armour, shield and small hammer; the nun has a two-handed hammer (same she uses for stonemasonry) and heavyset leather armour. We head off into the woods…
….and those 40hrs elapse. With a night between, and we see gibbeted criminals strung up in the trees, decayed and pecked; we also find corpses of animals along the way. During rests Kain spars with Hob and his rusty sword. Sten pulls a whetstone and shows Hob how to sharpen it up. They share conversation about Tim, who isn’t dead, nor necessarily alive, and Sten says his grandma has been in his head 40yrs telling him to eat more. Tim also told Hob to buck his ideas up, leave the mine and make something of himself. We find no witch, and are still following tracks. We do not get the impression we’re gaining on them - in fact, the trail is getting colder, as if they’re moving faster than us. Kain is preparing a verse about this, whilst the others are frustrated by what seems like a lack of progress. Prof asks which way this trail goes, but the farmfolk haven’t been this way, and the priest isn’t from the area.
As we set up overnight camp one of the townsfolk heads on to scout a bit further for information on the tracks, returning 3hrs after they left, and Wilson asks if any joy - they found a camp about 1.5hrs ahead with 3 armoured people around a fire, and picks, just on the edge of the camp, a child’s doll. No sign of any kids though, but the doll being on the trail…Sten asks if anyone recognises it as belonging to a child of Ilmatra’s Hope. None of them recognise it outright, but looks like a kid’s doll made of straw-stuffed fabric with bright stones for eyes. Kain gives it a sniff, which is a little odd. It smells of wet hay, and a flower woven into its hair gives off a scent. We decide to pay them a visit once we establish the townsfolk can stand a watch, apparently we don’t even need to return and Kain deflates the whoopee cushion of his pipebag. The Prof promises to send a message to Iaus once we get on and leaves behind a paper crane. Hob is most impressed by this.
We set off and see an odd biologic, floating light up ahead. We are asked by the Prof if any of us know about such a thing, and it reminds Wilson of spirit/personifications of such, usually mischievous, and Wilson relays the fact they’ll cause trouble but not a lot more than that, and another blinks into existence. Kain discusses whether to try going round or to talk to them, whilst the Prof tries to account for the full number, and makes out 3 total, but 2 other ‘clumps’ of magic. Kain leads the way as Sten suggests if they’re spirits, we might talk to them, and as we approach the light they are shedding, they see the approach, and the middle one says “hey! Hey you!” Kain introduces himself and asks the name of the spirit (“hey!”) and asks to pass by? Hey flies around Kain a few times and says “this way” as Kain keeps walking. Prof thinks Kain is being led into a clump of magic and suggests a diversion slightly off the track. By circling round the path a second light-mote thing joins and circles us, and we get our ear out and Sten hears a heavy crunch of a branch in the direction we’re heading, and holds us up and quietly pulls his axes from their loops, Kain slowly inflating his pipebag again ready for trouble and brandishes his spear; Hob inelegantly draws his sword and we get ready for trouble. Hey’s light start sputtering and are still saying ‘this way’ towards the magic-patch.
As their light sputters, the Prof’s lapels flap and an object casts light giving a 30ft range of light. This highlights a large black thing with a leathery carapace, and towards the magic clump some white things which are hard to make out. The Hey’s start changing to an angry red colour, and we see another angry red one heading over. Kain sparks up a tune on his pipes ready to rock.
Combaaaaaaaaaaaat
The Heys are now angry red, and a huge spider along with two human type bodies with augmented legs made to look like boney spider things also emerge. The Professor takes unkindly to a red hey and fires a bolt of psychic laser-eye at it. Big Yellow Attacksies charges in and absolutely blasts Kain. Hey smacks Wilson hard too with a sharpened wing, causing some serious damage and flits away. Wilson then fires a bolt into the spider-human that hit Kain and steps backwards. The other Hey then fires at Sten and hits, then the last Hey who joined the fray hits Hob. Ouchie! Sten charges the thing that hit him and swings an axe at him. Absolutely cracks him one with it, bloodying it. Hey becomes Ow. Kain starts up a thunderous pipe tune and hits one, then calls over to Hob and calls him over inspiring him to ‘get in the game’ (very 4th wall breaking). The huge spider trundles up to Kain and seeks to chomp him. It does chomp and ensnares Kain. Hob cheers a bit before the other bone spider thingy tries to outflank the remaining group.
ED1
Prof points his wand skyward and out of his sleeves fly a couple of motes which go upwards then explode into shards, hitting a bunch of the things around him except the huge spider. This finishes Hey 1 who Sten was hitting, and Hey 2. Hob cheers him in and he stabs at the spider too. Unfortunately this puts him in the range of the bony spiderperson so takes a hit, and on the crackback tries but fails to hit Kain. Wilson then fires an arrow at the spider holding Kain, connecting cleanly. The remaining Hey floats forward and fires on Wilson, staggering him. Sten turns for a new target and charges the spider, but only clips him. Kain, still playing, tries to wrest himself from the grip of the spider, but doesn’t escape its clutches. Hob calls over and Kain heals up before attacking, then the spider chomps Kain again. Hob steps in front of Wilson and a spider-person trots up and hits him and then cracks back on Prof, weakening him.
ED2
Prof shocking grasps the spiders and things around him, assesses his surroundings and stands firm next to Kain. Spiderboar hits him back, but he spits out a wad of blood and heals up. Wilson heals back up thanks to Hob’s advice before firing 2 arrows (the first missing) on the spiderboar in the face of Hob, the second connecting. Hey 3 misses another shot at Wilson, before Sten shoves people out the way and steps over dwarves to reach the bloodied spiderboar. He absolutely blasts hell out of it, but it is hanging by a thread. Kain then tries to finish it off with some cutting words, successfully. With some additional help from Hob Kain also throws a spear and heals up. Hob also hits something with a sword 😮
At the end of the turn the spiderboarthing that Kain “killed” is revived and staggers up again.
ED3
Prof hits the spiderboarbone thing next to Hob with a Ray of Frost, and Wilson follows it up with another couple of arrows thudding into it, yet it lives. The remaining Hey now shoots at Hob, but misses again. Sten seems to get angry and talking to his dead relatives, before swinging again at the boney spider next to Hob, and hits it so hard it dies without getting back up. Hob’s spirit friend Tim pushes Sten over towards another target, the other spiderboarbone and obliterates this one as well, leaving us just a Hey and a big Spider. Kain heals back up, but not quite enough as the spider squeezes then chomps him up. Hob quaffs a potion then trots over to look at squeezed Kain.
ED4
Prof frostrays the spider before Wilson pops a potion down Kain’s throat getting him back up (albeit in the spider’s claws). Sten now goes for the spider too, rounding on this monstrosity. He connects, staggering it. Kain is incapable of withdrawing from the spider’s embrace but does spear it too, then the spider squeezes Kain again, but looks over at Sten, then hits at Kain, but thanks to Hob, Sten then steps in and clobbers it with his axe, which makes it bloodthirsty so it hits for more, and the spider is beginning to look slightly ropey.
ED5
Prof sparkles the spider with a spray of colours which kills it. No spider wants to see that much colour. He then flits over to the remaining Hey and tries to grab it out of the sky with shocking hands. Wilson fires and misses, then remembers he could try one more time, and connects quickly with two arrows, bam-bam, which kill it. The wood goes quiet again.
Combat ends…and session
To remember for next time:
Kain needs to level up ;)
Wilson needs to think about being a more graceful elf before ED5
Sten asks Hob how he found his first fight…and about Tim’s claw, and asks how they met, which apparently a fun yarn. Down the mines near Chipping Mortonbury he found a book, which he read and Tim began speaking to him. The Prof warns Hob about reading tomes from the earth and Hob hands it over for Prof to read. He spurns the chance to read it and tells Hob to keep it to himself, but remember the voice coming out of his mouth is his - and looking perplexed, Sten explains “even if the one in your head isn’t yours”.
We head back to the trail and course around in the dark, moving forward. 30mins further in (now an hour, so 30mins still from our goal), we notice three humanoid individuals on the trail ahead, standing in the dark. Wilson shoos the party to the roadside and signals this to them, and queries what the plan is, to deal with 3 people standing in the dark on a road. We decide to move closer as a party, shuffling ahead. As we get closer we see them just standing in a circle, weird, Sten asks what they might be doing, and we return to the group, to explain the situation (odd). Hob thinks they’re night hunters and it’s no big deal so he clanks towards them, and we all follow - Hob sees the same thing again, 3 unresponsive people standing in a circle. As they get closer, a flash of lightning streaks the sky, and Hob notices all 3 are now facing him. Their clothes are totally soaked through, mud, totally unresponsive, but look like middle-class merchants. Hob notices their feet are bare, but the weirdest thing is the maniacal grins they have on their faces, eyes piercing into us. Hob greets them and asks if they’re waiting on their hunting ferret.
They don’t answer - another flash of lightning, no change. Hob stands firm saying ‘hello?’, and the Prof warns Hob that these three are strange. The two nearest us are guys, the one further back a gal. The Prof sparks a light spell between the two parties, and Kain asks ‘what is the joke then?’ and the woman opens her mouth and tilts back her head, and we hear a dry rasping heaving sound and her tongue unreels, far further than a normal tongue, splits down the middle, wraps round her cheek and we realise the tongues are actually fingers, the mouth widening and the cheeks tearing as something seems to be pulling itself out of her. “That’s not much of a punchline”, says Kain, as an emaciated figure starts pulling itself out of her body. As Hob steps back a couple, lightning flashes, the woman’s body is crumpled and an 8ft tall emaciated figure looms over - mouthless, noseless and long-fingered. Another flash of lightning - and her fingers slash at the other two and their heads lop off and she retreats. This causes Kain and Sten to be horrified and frozen, and Hob hides behind the Professor.
Kain goes to look at the decapitated bodies, and he notices the eyes are missing, the hands blistered and mud-caked, and the back of their clothes are shredded. He heaves a bit of bile, and reads “Da haf wyyc Mah?” carved into the back of one of them. The Prof reads it and makes sense of it, but refuses to voice the words, in his head rings the word, repeatedly, causing him to feel dishevelled, and as he gains understanding he hears “Da haf wycc Mah, do you seek Him?” and a wave of primal fear hits him. The Prof grits his teeth and tries to push past the fear and says “yes” out loud. “We’ve got a job to do”. Looking over more of the bodies, a metallic odour emerges, and a healing potion, plus a magic oil, and some sort of cleaning vial. The Prof says this thing ‘favours children’ for ‘vile things’ (eating?). A torch light glows behind us as our village companions catch up with us, so we discuss options (roll them on their backs? Burn them? etc.). We decide to roll them into a ditch so the villagers don’t see it. Sister is leading the way and asks how we’ve been getting on. Whether we’ve seen anything strange, etc. Hob says he saw some ‘large indigenous wildlife’, and the Sister says Kain can play a tune to scare it away, so Kain sparks it up and we head on.
Wilson leads the way, looking off trail he spots 3 eyes looking at them and lets them know this (along with his newfound phobia of the dark). We continue to follow the trail, and at a break in the treeline we look out into the rain and see the continuation of the forest 60ft away. In this break, there appears to be a huge chasm in the ground - filled with an odd assortment of various flowers. The chasm is 20’ broad by 20’ deep. Hob remembers a story of vicious flowers that attack people. Kain looks at the roots which seems worrisome, even though the flowers look fine. Hob goes back and talks to Dave, seeking a tree to be chopped down, and Dave blathers a bit and seems to miss the point, then walks up to a tree and starts chopping, Hob correcting his axe angle technique, and he whales away. As he chops, each strike makes a sound wave pulsing the flowers, who are obviously not taking kindly to his action. The tree is felled and thankfully falls away from us, and it falls on one of the plants, causing a weird “squelch” noise. Despite the squelch, Hob recalls a ‘two-life/rise from the dead’ story about the plants, so isn’t complacent…
Combaaaat
Sten takes the direct route and charges the nearest enemy plant. Then its friend shuffles up and clobbers Sten. Kain gets a gee up from Hob, moves forward and says something which is trying to cut deep into the soul of the plant, but it doesn’t heed it. The squished plant gets out from under the tree, and charges the villagers who flee, so it pivots to Hob and hits him, its toxic smell dazing him. The Prof, who’s been itching to burn stuff all night, steps toward Sten and fireballs everything in the vicinity, hitting 2 and critting 1. He kills one and staggers the two engaged with Sten, them still crackling with fire. Hob gathers his courage and shouts to Sten, before the burned plant seems to gather itself, looking slightly different but certainly alive. It points a tendril at the Prof and a spectral light shoots towards him, but misses, phew. Wilson steps forward and flings an arrow at a plant by Sten, hitting hit, and Sten rallies.
ED1
Sten fully heals, but misses with a swing, before the Prof is absolutely clammered, and Kain moves next to Hob, smelling the stench but not bad enough to cause him to miss his strike. Hob takes another hit, alas, then the Prof gathers himself again but misses with his ray of fire. Hob clears his poison, and gees him up to attack again, and the Prof tries a second ray of fire which connects. The plant now fires its ray on Sten, which connects. Wilson fires at the plant engaged with Sten, killing it by clipping. Hob loves seeing this and encourages him to shoot again, killing the thing engaged with Hob/Kain, so YET another shot fires over at the plant that died once - missing, but with one final shot connects. Wilson’s hands are a blur reloading the crossbow.
ED2
Sten leaps across the ravine, but falls into the ravine, so chooses that moment to rally and heal up a little. The dead plant revives, its stench dazing Wilson, but it misses with its non-stinky attack. Kain comes up and misses a shot on this plant, and the other zombie one revives too, hitting Kain, oh dear. The Prof hits the zombie plant that hit Kain, then moves over to the trunk, and Hob encourages Kain to have another shot, whoopsy. The zombie plant the other side of the ravine look down and shoot Sten again with their negative energy. The other plant fires at Wilson and Kain, hitting the former. Wilson fails to disengage and fails to spear the plant, so stands there looking stupid.
ED3
Sten rallies and charges up the chasm, attacking and staggering the zombie plant that side. Wilson then gets hit, before Kain lands a blow, and has a word with himself. Kain gets hit, despite requesting another blow, then the Prof channels his College Wrestling Career to wrestle this trunk, caber tossing to bridge the chasm and flattening the non-zombie plant who has been beaming Sten. Hob loves this and cheers the Prof on for another crack, so the Prof fire-rays the zombie plant engaged with Kain. That dies too, and Hob demands more chlorophyll spill. Hob looks around and the zombie plant fighting Sten misses, before the trunk-flattened plant respawns and fires at the Prof, who squished him. Wilson disengages from the zombie plant fighting him and Kain and shoots a bolt into it.
ED4
Sten hits the zombie plant fighting him and kills it off, and hearing Hob’s cheers of encouragement, spin throws the axe at the other plant this side of the chasm. Two blows from the spinning axe, chop chop, kills this one and Hob demands more, so Sten runs past, grabs the axe, steps across the chasm on the log, charges the bloodied zombie plant remaining next to Kain (who hears Sten muttering to himself, or someone in his head?), and kills off that one too, leaving 3 plant-bodies in its wake.
Combat ends…
Dave comes up and compliments Hob’s friends. He compliments Hob who’s far too humble, his sword still sheathed. The party heals up and the villagers return to survey the damage. We step over the chasm on the trunk and move the final half hour towards the camp, and Kain engages someone looking worse for wear, rubbing his back and asking if he’s ok. Unfortunately what looks back is an 8ft tall 3-eyes monster who swipes at Kain, then runs into the forest. Very weird! Kain looks back and sees the villager 20ft away, bamboozling. Despite some scary shadows and jump scares, especially for Wilson, we reach the “enemy” camp the scouts found, quite some hours ago. A few hundred feet from there we see the glow of the camp.
Strange sounds in the night emanate as we’re 150ft from the campfire, and 4 humanoids are around the campfire. Looking at the silhouettes, some are armoured. Adults - we see no kids - and no tents. Kain suggests Sten goes charging in which he and Hob hang back. Kain also suggests creating an illusion the other side of the fire to distract them. Hob and Sten move on and Hob hears a snap, looks down and sees his leg in a bear trap. Oh dear. The illusion is cast but the three figures turn to look at Hob…
Combaaaaaat
Sten gets an arrow shot into him from the woods and Wilson spots the shooter, then two lumbering folks move towards us. Hob is frozen in fear and bear trap. The Prof moves up to Hob and takes a look at the bear trap, tries to open it, but it closes back and bites Hob as he tries to take his leg out. He is freed but with another nip. Then an arrow whistles past Hob’s head, who glares back at the large figures and a huge blue form, translucent and many-toothed, coalesces around Hob. Wilson steps up to Hob and fires an arrow at the fella in the tree, missing. Hob is targeted again before Kain gains some strength, gives some choice words, damaging the psyche of an enemy, then tunes his bagpipes up and heals Hob with the tune. Sten gets real angry and tunes in on the closest fella to him, but misses his hit. And once again he looks into a blank face, and they strike Sten. Another shoots at Hob 🙁
ED1
Prof notes the fella hanging back, gets behind cover and ray of psychic damages the beasts around Sten. Hob gives Mr Vos another attack, then the tree archer fires a shot on the Prof. Wilson moves up to look at the fella at the back of the fight and sees he’s bound up - so fires at the archer in the tree and hits this time. The Prof then gets hit with some damage, before Kain throws some cheery pipe-points to Hob, then says something nasty to the melee guy near Sten, and the enemy’s head snaps round to look at Kain, who flees up a tree. Sten now connects with the fella who looked at Kain, and he bloodies him with a blow, before making a second attack. That second attack finishes him so Hob cheers Sten on for more. Meanwhile Hob feels his leg getting mouldy and necrotic.
ED2
As the melee corpse collapses to the ground from many axe chops, from the head of the corpse, cleaved by an axe, appears a weird brain on legs. Sten gets hit and feels footbrain grappling him mentally in a psychic duel. The Professor attacks far and wide but only connects with the brain. Hob stands there looking a bit weird. The archer then goes for Wilson, who uses his turn to rally and retreat. Hob unfortunately takes some more negative energy damage from his mouldy leg. Kain’s tune continues and The Prof takes some bonus points. Kain then gives Sten a gee-up, what with him surrounded by enemies. The melee fighter’s head snaps round and looks at Kain in the tree again. Meanwhile Sten, encouraged by Hob, kills another monster but out climbs another brain. He also then gets to kill the first brainfoot. He then has a go at second brain.
ED3
Prof spots the green footbrain at his feet, and flambés the brainfoot. Hob then feels more leadery, uses his grimoire to do some force damage to the brain, then the archer hits him again, boo. Wilson tries 2 shots on the archer and absolutely flubs it, then Hob gets another wave of ennui, so Kain’s baggytunes perk him up again. He then says something sarky to green brainfoot, which kills it off. Sten gets a rally and heals up, then lands a critical blow on the last thing-with-a-brain-in, bloodies it, has another hit and kills it, so the last brain creeps out. He hits the brain too, thanks Hob, but it’s hanging by a thread, oof. However, the brain hits back and mind-grapples Sten.
ED4 (3)
The Prof sees this, gets frosty, and Hob loves what he sees (a hit) so cheers him on for more. Alas this hit fails. Hob gives everyone a chance to de-escalate, get mellow, heal up a little, and then the archer fires on the Prof, but misses. Wilson hits the archer, bloodying it and leaving it dripping blood. Hob gets pointed at and ennui envelops him again, and Kain’s lovely song ends too. He therefore pivots to attack mode on the archer and kills him with one faraway blow, leaving another brain to crawl out. Sten locks eyes on the nearby enemies up trees, jumps off a rock leaping from bough to bough, and strikes out, missing. All that treeclimbing.
ED4 (the second time)
The one Sten hits turns round to face and fight him. It’s a clean miss tho, then the Professor keeps frosting everything he sees - this time bluebrainfoot. Wilson finishes it off, then Sten ‘brainifies’ the creature in the tree next to him, once again leaving the brain mushy but not yet deceased, so Hob shouts at Sten to ram it home, and it dies.
ED5
Prof trots over and sees the last remaining treebound enemy, and lowers his wand and throws another ray down on it. Hob then swells with pride seeing everyone fight, and walks in a tight circle. Kain tries to sadden it, before Sten leaps Lord Greystoke-like to the next tree and clobbers it. He does cleanly and the last brain wanders out, and Hob tells him to keep going! He staggers the remaining brain, before the
ED6
Prof moves his ray of frost over onto the brain, connecting flimsily, so Hob tells him to shape up, and it’s hanging by a thread. Hob gives Sten another crack and finishes it off.
Combat ends
As a green light leaves Sten’s eyes, we see a green hand wander out and give Tim’s scaly blue claw a high five. Spirit pals! We look around the bodies and brains, which clearly didn’t come from the bodies. Very strange. We try and work out if we’ve heard of this before, and Kain racks his brains hahaaaaaa to see if he remembers anything, and there is a faraway tale of ‘intellect devourers’ who replace the person whose brain’s they’ve eaten. We surmise these brains were pregnant and looking for new hosts for their kids, and Hob’s lambing experience means he tries to look to see if these brains were pregnant or birthed somewhere or somehow. We decide to go and talk to the tied up person - Hob doesn’t recognise him, dressed in leathers, bound and gagged, barely conscious. Rather than fear he’s infected with brain or three-eyed thing, we’re just going to go up and kill him if trouble.
Kain goes over, kneels down and lets some air out of his pipebag, reassures him he’s safe and un-gags him. Spluttering, taking some sips Kain begins untying him and asks who he is (“Cole”), and from where he is “not here”, not a merchant - but a hunting party. He notes the mind-controlling pustules. He hasn’t seen any kids. They were going to set up camp when he heard them saying they’d need ‘another one’. He’s from a town nearby going to Ilmatra’s Hope to trade, coming from the Town over ‘there [little Winching]’, and the Prof asks if they were set about here or somewhere else. He knew the rest of the party before they were ‘brained’. Hob realises he’s from the same town but doesn’t know this guy, so maybe it’s a ruse. Hob decides this guy isn’t on the level so we should kill him, whereas Kain and Sten think he’s just a bandit rather than a brain-filled pustule. At this point he tries to run…
but Sten grabs him by the collar and ensures he doesn’t flee, since he’d prefer not to talk to us. He then says ‘you’ll never catch up to them, not unless you know these woods’. Sten says ‘that’s not I’m asking’ and the bandit says ‘I didn’t take them further than here’. Sten warns them that the villagers will be clumsy in their attempt to execute this guy, and the kidnapper says ‘you then won’t get the children…you won’t catch them, you’ll be too slow, their blood will awaken the Nameless God’.
They’re heading to Gate Village, and he spits out some more blood and teeth. It looks like the brain things were waylaid. Kain asks why he’s not afraid of dying and apparently the Nameless God is going to purge things anyway, so hey. Who’s this Nameless God? Kain knows it predates even the known ones now, slumbering, it is said, and when it awakens will bring the Age of Ruin and the heralds will be the ones who awaken it. The herald is Lord Soren Arkwright, the Carver of Dreams. He refers to elves and “Gracious Bounty”: a mining colony run by elves - mithral quarry, where they trapped non-elves to slave. It was overmined and abandoned 150yrs ago. Apparently the mine is in this area (like, county). He says the elves are the poison of the earth.
We think about checking with the villagers if they’ve heard of “Gate Village”. We think about following tracks instead of relying on this guy - what with there being 11 children and all. Wilson can pick up a trail getting washed away. He points it out, whilst Hob calls over to the villagers and says ‘this guy took the children!’ and the villagers lynch him in front of us, causing those of us who haven’t seen summary execution before to feel a little unsettled. Sten starts narrating the lynching to his ancestors.
We take a break and the rain may start to slacken but the trail may yet go cold. We know the villagers at our original camp will strike and follow behind, and this lynch mob have calmed enough to come along too. The light of dawn starts creeping through and we head out into a meadowplain. We feel fatigued but are pressing on, Kain pointing out to Hob that stories aren’t written about heroes who sleep.
We all take a recovery loss as we push on. Hob is feeling the least sane as we continue our tracking and the journey begins to take its toll on him. He believes no-one is around him, he’s by himself! He calls out to his companions, but no-one answers, even his book and Tim are gone, his whole bag is empty. He closes his eyes and reopens them and he’s back in the forest alone. Then he sees the Professor’s dead face in front him, Sten is dead too, skulls exploded. Hob runs blindly through the forest, until bumping into Wilson, having somehow got in front of the group. Wilson is told this story by Hob but looks behind him and sees both of them doing fine, so sends Hob back to talk to them and check ‘their brains are still in their head’.
Hob goes back, speaks to them, and also has a chat with Kain. Kain also notes he blinked out of existence there, and Sten tells him off for running away. Hob shares his horror story. Sten just suggests that maybe Hob shouldn’t have come along, and he takes poorly to this and marches ahead. When things settle down, Kain pats Hob’s forearm (can’t reach his shoulder) and Kain says ‘I believe you disappeared too, I saw something strange in the night. It’s not you’. Hob thanks him for his candour and support. As this conversation ends, in the distance, we see trees forming a gate into a village…gate village? Hmm. No noise, some smoke, concern from the Prof that this village is full of bad apples. Sten is glad this means there may be no civilian casualties at least! Kain spots small trinkets/items left from hard travel (pins, brooches, hair ties) suggesting people were ferried this way.
Entering the village, Wilson finds on the ground, the footprints of the cultists and children - very easy to follow in deep mud. Also inside the village, he smells decaying flesh and wrinkles his nose. The Prof recognises the ground is desecrated. As we enter the village it dims in the sky menacingly, like it’s waiting for us. We move into the village and those buildings we pass by are burned down - months ago, apparently, and sized to human/elf occupancy. We move in and start finding corpses of elf, human bodies, armoured differently (two sides in battle: wood elf v human, plus some human slaves in rags). All buildings are scorched, some standing as they’re on stone foundations, but the village has been levelled. It was an impressive village - lucrative? But no watchtowers, etc. but a single two-storey building which appears unburned, and hanging from there it was probably once an inn/gathering hall. The tracks seem to lead to this inn - the windows boarded up. We note the corpses are recently deceased, and some buildings smouldering, despite the town having been razed months ago.
As we move near the inn, we hear the faint sound of kids laughing….shudder
Kain goes to look into a window which is boarded up and curtains-drawn, cracks a window and smells rotting food, then looks in and sees a banquet/party table with food on plates, all mouldering. Lots of side tables nearby too. The giggling sounds again, further in the building. Kain keeps working round the building, looking in, seeing a well appointed room, etc., keeps poking around, seeing a small bedroom plus some corpses in them. The Prof lights up the room to get a closer look at the bodies (townies/peasants), blood on the floor, etc. - 2 dead in the beds 2 on the floor. Creepy giggling pervades but in the middle of the house. Kain pries open another window and something lunges towards his spear. Kain thinks the corpses are moving…so Hob starts peeking in windows too (he also has a predilection for this) and spots a corridor leading in. We flip the latch and wander in, and see a figure hunched over a child’s corpse, picking at it and eating bits. The chest cavity has been hollowed out, limbs gnawed and detached. As the door crashes in it turns to us and snarls with glee seeing new food. It has jagged teeth as it smiles and grinds.
Combaaaaaattttt!
It lunges at the party, hitting Hob verrrrrrry hard, then the Prof tries to shut it out with some sort of spell which is a holding portal of some kind! Then Hob heals up, then behind both doors we hear rattling as if the portal is holding but…2 weird things come out from another angle and crash into the wall. Wilson fires an arrow but misses, then Kain tunes up his bagpipes and plays a thunderous song which kills a mook behind the big fella next to Hob. More strong booms come from portal but it continues to hold, thanks Prof; Sten gets ragey and swings, connecting beautifully but misses with a crackback.
ED1
Monster boy absolutely whales on Sten despite missing Hob left right and centre. The Prof shines some light in to a nearby room and hears something behind that door (perhaps being injured by exploding runes?), whilst his wards holding the other doors stay in place. Tim then, via Hob, asks Sten to have another crack, which connects, staggering the toothy thing. More banging against a door, some sizzling flesh, then Wilson fires two arrows (total miss) / another one (a reasonable hit). Kain’s thundery tune connects against both the toothy thing and the mooky thing, killing the latter. The wall crunches near Kain as something breaks through the wall rather than trying the portal-held door. It gets out and turns to look at Wilson, eep. Sten misses, gets a heal from Hob-Tim, then
ED2
Toothy thingy hits Sten (again) but misses Hob (again). The Prof sends frosty ways towards an enemy before Sten once again gets Tim-Hobbed into making more violent attacks. This one kills the toothy thing hitting Sten and Hob as well, so Tim-Hob tells him to keep going (great!), and Sten charges out the door towards Wilson’s nearby villain. Hob feels very commanding, retreats politely and goes to cheer Sten on some more. Through the hole in the wall we see the corpses have arisen and they attempt to charge Kain - he gets hit and his tune ends, alas, as he’s dropped. Wilson misses again, then Hob moves to lift Kain up and he rallies
ED3
This thing outside absolutely smashes at Sten and kills him with a single blow, yeouch. That’s not good! The Prof hits both mooks with a colour spray and they drop, but misses on the thing that murdered Sten. Tim-Hob tells the Prof to crack on so a holy frost ray hits it. Wilson fires two arrows (miss-hit) at the thing that dropped Sten, and takes another tentative step back. Kain rallies up and fires a verse arrow at the killer.
ED4
The killer also drops Hob, Wilson craps his pants and kills the thing that killed Sten and dropped Hob :/
Combat ends….
Kain runs over and sticks a potion in Hob to bring him back up, and we go over to look at Sten’s cut up body 😟
We hear the children giggling still, which is messed up given what we’ve seen, and Kain hangs about seeking to revive Sten. The Prof is very much, having looked around, of the opinion that the town is dead and each house could be full of these things. Meanwhile Hob is looking at the dead kid to see if he recognises this one from Ilmatra’s Hope, it’s Bob. Alas.
Kain brings Sten to, who has seen better days. Kain also observes another not-fresh-corpse in another room and backs away slowly. Continuing to move and Kain sees some weird spectral kids, like the memories of ones once there. Kain opens the last door and finds a toilet. Hob goes to use it. Meanwhile another spectral banquet (which the elf kid spectres are interacting with), and Kain notes the partygoers are elves, and the servants are human. Kain notes this. There’s then a vision of the party turning weird and the adults gleefully tearing at each other whilst the kids scream…creepy. Hob pulls the bucket and sponge over to wipe up, but given how long it’s been there Hob just pulls his britches up and gets out. Kain sees a ghost swing a sword in Kain’s vicinity, but pulls the swing and stops, as if to stare where Kain is, then resumed fighting. Kain tries to usher the ghost-children out of the room, in the hopes of interacting with these things. Unfortunately this addles his sanity, badly, and he feels a sense of terror and wants to flee - the kids heading to the toilet. Kain runs to the toilet and looks in and sees the dead corpses of elf-kids in the cesspit, about 1-2 weeks dead from the look of them. Kain then leaves the toilet and all the fighting ghosts grin at him, and then disappear in a puff of flame, as Kain swears at them.
Hob notes to Kain that we were told the ground was unhallowed, and Kain says ‘so’s the shitter’, and goes to wipe Hob’s poop off the dead kids before burying them with Kain’s help. He then plays a lament on the pipes for these poopsmeared dead kids. Wilson heads out the back door and courses around for tracks, spotting a path along a cobbled street and a trail of maybe 2 dozen - ~half kids. Sten staggers out to join us and head along the trail, whilst Kain remembers that Gate Villages sit between world/planes and are affected by the clashes of each world’s magics and the turbulence makes time flow weirdly and peoples reasoning to be affected. Kain thinks maybe the town was driven mad by this gateway.
We head down the path the trail leads long and find the town square and a lot of piled bodies in a cart, a mount of bodies, piles of earth with bodies under etc., sheesh.