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| Away to the Mountains by Warwick Goble |
A long, long time ago, in Nightwick Abbey...
Session 38 - 1st of December1391
This week's adventurers:
Sotar (Cleric 4)
Blossom (Rogue 3)
Mayfly (Magic-User 3)
Anston (Fighter 1)
Liminal Space (Changeling 2)
Cherwe (Cleric 3)
Mechtild (Fighter 1)
Yevegniy the Coward (Cleric 1)
Verinka (Changeling 1)
Hirelings:
Ticze (Changeling 1) + the rest of them
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| This week we went hex-crawling. |
Oh, my friends have begun to worry
After two weeks off, we're back in the world of Nightwick! During our downtime, a group of local woodsmen approached Liminal Space and Verinka. They tell the Changelings that the time of Father Winter is coming and if he is not brought his sweet cakes and milk, the Pestilence Man will come and bring plague to the Dark Country this winter. We are to follow the river into the Fog-bound forest for two days until we reach the island in the river that holds Father Winter's Tomb and bring him the cakes and milk. In the meantime, the vicar of Nightwick is preparing for the feast day of Saint Santa Claus! The party decides to take the locals up on their request and pay a visit to Father Winter.
Where I should be grateful, I should be satisfied
We set off at dawn on the 1st of December. The weather has taken a cold turn as the crew sets out along the riverbank. It feels strange to pass by the shadow of Nightwick Abbey without going in. Blossom scouts ahead for us and, in the morning, hears the sounds of a great battle up ahead. We decide to avoid whatever it is we're hearing and cut a path directly through the forest to meet up with the river upstream. We luckily don't get lost and continue on our way.
A little after noon, a man carrying a bundle of wood comes bounding out of the forest. He's trying to get back to Nighwick village, but, unfortunately for him, we're headed in the opposite direction. When he finds out we're off to find Father Winter, he departs from us, muttering, "I knew this was a land of paganry" and returns to the forest.
Oh, my heart, I would clap and dance in place
We set up camp for the night and appoint party members to stand watch. During the 2nd watch, Liminal sees numerous torch lights on the opposite bank. It looks like a large group and they appear to be heading towards our camp. Liminal casts Auditory Illusion, conjuring a cacophony of beast noises and the group is scared off. We rest through the rest of the night with no further problems.
The next day, Sotar opts to prepare the spell Resist Cold instead of Cure Light Wounds as we awaken to a very cold morning. Something about "Father Winter's Tomb" sounds like it could be a good idea. We set off again along the river, with Blossom again in front, scouting for us. Before long, she hears as sound up ahead, like hundreds of wind chimes. As we approach, we also hear the sound of trees falling. Up ahead, we finally see several figures in wooden masks and green cloaks with white fur lining. As they fell trees, we glimpse luminous skin beneath their cloaks - they're Elves!
Liminal goes to say hi to them, and one of the Elves introduces themselves as Sugarplum. They speak first amonng themelves in their elfish language before replying in screeching voices. While some of the party are wary of dealing with them, Mayfly and Liminal trust them.
"I smell treats,' Sugarplum exclaims. We explain that we're headed to Father Winter's Tomb to deliver the treats to him, and they offer to lead us there.
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| My rough map of the explored parts of the tomb. |
With my friends, I have so much pleasure to embrace
We arrive at a part of the river that is frozen over. In the middle of the river is a large island and the air turns noticeably colder as we cross. The island is taken up with a large, rough barrow with a blue and red carved door. Sugarplum and the other elves refuse to come inside with us - "He is angry," is all they say. Blossom tries to swap a cloak with one of them for extra warmth, but it seems to shrink once she tries to put it on. We brought all of our hireling with us into the wilderness, but opt to only bring in Ticze (parties bigger than 10 people have an increased chance of random encounters in the dungeon). The door to the tomb opens easily and we see a small room with a hallway to the east and a tessellating snowflake pattern on the floor. Blossom notices a string strung up across the entry room and, carefully stepping over it, discovers a crossbow trap. She disables it and Mayfly takes the crossbow for himself.
On the north side of the room is an alcove with 3 statues. On the left, is a jolly man in red fur-lined robes. In the middle is a larger figure of an old, thin man in blue fur-lined robes. On the right is an emancipated corpse in a black robe. They appear to be Saint Santa Clause, Father Winter, and the Pestilence Man, respectively. Mayfly casts ESP and detects echoey thoughts to the northeast - tormented undead? The west wall of this room looks like it was build later than the rest of the room. We look around for secret doors, but find nothing.
Oh, my thoughts, I return to summer time
Going down the hall, it turns north and we see a shadowy figure with an inky black helmet ahead, hovering over a pentagram painted on the floor in a goo that looks similar to something we've seen in Nightwick - it appears to be the ghostly remains of a Sword Brother. It points a sword at the party and approaches. Sotar turns the undead and it leaves the area past us, never to return. The room where the ghost was in has two doors and a hallway to the east. The first door, to the west, opens up to a room decorated in red. We see the faint glimmer of silver at the edge of our torchlight. We think it's the hall of St. Santa. Going off of the statues from the first room, we deduce that the door to the north should lead us to Father Winter's area.
Opening the door, the already cold air of the tomb becomes even colder and Sotar casts Resist Cold to protect the party. Ahead of us is a large vaulted hall with mistletoe hung from the ceiling halfway down and doorways to the east and west by the mistletoe. At the end of the hall is a large tree covered with candles. Liminal Space and Verinka walk in front and go directly under the mistletoe (but don't kiss) and... nothing happens. Cherwe and Sotar come next, but step around it, in front of one of the doorways that leads to an alcove and a blast of fire bursts out at them. Cherwe is down and dying (but not yet dead) and Sotar is left at 1 hp.
Up ahead, from behind the tree, four more of those shadowy ghosts approach us, with swords drawn. Cherwe is revived with a health potion, all three clerics take a crack at turning the undead but all fail, and the shadows all roll horribly (I'm not sure if any of them landed a hit, despite having a +3 to attack). Mayfly blinds one with Light, and Anston and Mechtild, with their magic swords, down them quickly.
Now my heart is returned to Father Winter
Arranged around the tree are three fireplaces. To the west, is one that might be found in a nice peasant home. To the east is one that is "small and shitty," and to the north, is one that is "rich and pleasant." Again, thinking of the three statues, we assume the one to the north is for Father Winter. Blossom finds a door in the back of the fireplace and crawls through into a large room with 4-faced pillars.
Now my heart is as cold as ice
Meanwhile, Verinka tries to burn away four pentagrams drawn on the ground around the tree. They collapse, however, partway through the 3rd one. They find themselves in a large, black, vaulted hallway made of bones. A black figure with a golden helm and purple fire for eyes sits at the end of the hall - presumably Armadeus, the Great King of Hell, the Emperor of Lies. Huge beasts come up to Verinka and split open their chest while Armadeus inspects their organs. To the rest of us, Verinka is seemingly only unconscious on the floor, unharmed.
The party goes through the fireplace after Blossom, with Verinka's body, and approach a throne at the end of the room beyond. Seated on it is a 7' tall mummy-like figure wearing a blue, fur-lined coat and hat. Liminal offers up the treats and a cold blast of wind comes through the room and scoops up the food to the figure's head. Flesh returns to Father Winter's body and he joyfully rewards us for our efforts. We recieve:
- 2 boxes of sugarplums
- 1 box of fine honeycombs
- A set of brown fur robes and hat
- A 4-faced idol with two depictions of Father Winter, the Pestilence Man, and St. Santa. All are adorned with garnets.
- A full sized scrimshaw sled
- A bag of coins
- A magic sword
Thus ends our "Christmas" adventure in the world of Nightwick. We don't often leave the abbey, so this was a fun side adventure. I personally enjoyed the prospect that our decision to bring treats to Father Winter could have an impact on the world around us - we didn't have to go to his tomb and I like to think that things would have played out differently in the future if we didn't go. Even at level 4, OSE is still dangerous. I was genuinely worried about Sotar's safety during the final fight, but I had to weigh using his spells in the big fight vs saving them for a potential future fight - luckily Protection from Evil kept him safe and we have others in the group who could fight well. When I made Sotar back in session 13, I didn't think he would live this long and was prepared to roll up a new character soon - it's really cool that he's made it to level 4 and lasted this long.
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