Previously, in the world of Nightwick Abbey...
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Session 108 - 23rd of Unodecember, 1398
This week's adventurers:
Gerung Floating Disk (Magician 3)
Pataki (Rogue 2)
Blanda (Frogling Cleric 1/Thief 1)
Noor (Magician 1)
Persnickety (Changeling 1)
Chamberpot Ulfson (Fighter 1)
Hirelings: Dompnig
A Holy Charge
During the week, a strange priest by the name of Brother Noj of Ross approaches Persnickety. He declares her to be the spitting image of The Lady and charges her with a mission.
The priest maintains a shrine in the ruins of a nearby castle in the Mire of Princes. A few days prior, a group of bandits led by the terrible Robin the Lawless came and drove him out of the castle. He asks Persnickety to lead the charge in retaking the castle, offering her the favor of the Church as a reward, in addition to any treasure the bandits themselves may have.
The B[asic] Team
Persnickety is unable to convince many of her companions to join her and so is left to scrounge up additional misfits to aide her holy cause.
Miranda cooked up a low level adventure for us this week, so anyone with a higher level character had to roll up a new one or use their character from one of her other campaigns.
The crew departs Nightwick Village early in the morning, led by Brother Noj. We picked up a hireling, a local woodsman, to bolster our fighting capacity.
Noj suggests following the river into the mire, as that is the route he is familiar with, but the group decides to take the road north, then cut into the mire.
Strange Theology
Along the way, Blanda, a Cleric/Thief chats with Brother Noj.
Blanda's an AD&D (or OSE Advanced, pick your poison) character from another of Miranda's games.
While he lectures on the importance of castles to clerics, Blanda notices that he seems to be mixing Eastern and Western traditions in his theology. She thinks it a bit sus (seminary term), but not enough the derail our current plans.
The weather is bad and stays bad as we travel. We go out north along the road then cut west into the swamp about midday.
Should've Brought a Ranger
As we trek through the rough terrain, it becomes clear that the priest has become lost, so we head west towards the river in hopes of regaining our bearing.
In late afternoon, Pataki sees a flash of something red up ahead amongst the white grass.
She sneaks up ahead on her own and discovers a dead creature, smaller than a Frogling, resembling a small bear wearing a red hood.
It has black-shafted arrows sticking out of it, its likely cause of death.
It's hard to tell, but she thinks the corpse is relatively fresh, within a day or two.
She motions the rest of the party to rejoin her and searches the corpse, finding nothing of note beyond its red hood. Persnickety recognizes the creature as a Brownie, a type of house farie.
Faith Seeking Understanding
Brother Noj falls to his knees and says a pray of mercy to the Lady for the dead creature.
It's a little strange for a cleric to be so saddened at the death of a fay creature, but with changelings in the party, we're not going to question it too much.
Pataki asks why he referred to the creatures as "Her children," referencing the Lady.
He informs us that the shrine to the Lady in his castle was attended to by brownies.
This one was apparently from the castle and killed by the bandits.
Silent Night
Movement through the marsh is slow and night fast approaches.
We make camp for the night while Brother Noj buries the brownie.
Around the campfire, we ask Br. Noj about the castle and he explains that he has lived there alone for some time and stayed at the castle because he found an "emanation" of the Lady therein.
After an uneventful night (thankfully!) we break camp and continue to the river.
Brother Noj is more familiar with going to the castle along the river, so we hope to not get lost again.
More Decay
We make it to the river by noon, finding another 4 dead brownies, similarly slain.
We promise Brother Noj that we will bury them on our return trip so as to make it to the castle before nightfall.
Noor, Gerund, and Blanda, as we walk along the river north, fall through a thin patch of frozen bog water. They are pulled out quickly enough, but are chilled to the bone until they rest by a fire, especially so for cold-blooded Blanda.
This also imparted a attack penalty which, thankfully, didn't come up.
Keep on the Marshlands
By late afternoon, we come across the castle, sticking out of a mound on the low marsh.
Brother Noj advises us that the Sword Brothers, who built the castle, did not put arrow slits on the eastern wall and we should approach from that angle.
Our woodsman manages to make a fire such that its light is not too visible and we camp out to give our freezing party members a chance to warm up while we debate our options.
At night, we notice lights in the upper floors, revealing arrow slits on the eastern wall.
"Huh, I didn't know those were there," says Brother Noj
A Rogue in the Night
Gerung casts Invisibily on Pataki to allow her to scout out the castle and sneak up to it with ease.
She thinks the eastern arrow slits are not manned at the moment.
Circling around to the front, she sees several hanging bodies over the door that she thinks are brownies and notices that the door is open.
Still invisible, she sneaks up to the doors: large oak double doors broken open by something.
She sees a 30' by 30' room beyond containing a statue which she thinks to be of the Lady.
Across the room is another door, cracked open and she thinks she hears snoring, from some large creature, judging from the sound.
She creeps up to the door to spy and sees a large room with wall sconces and a very valuable table in the middle.
Damn. Do We Have to Fight That?
Pataki continues into the room and freezes as something comes out of an adjoining room.
A large creature with a head the size of a man's chest and two horns looks out, sees nothing, and returns to the room with a grunt.
After a few minutes, the snoring resumes. While waiting, Pataki studies the tapestry, which depicts a knight with two twisting horns, much like the beast she just witnessed, strangling a woman. It is a very roughspun, amateurish tapestry.
She continues to explore the first floor, away from the snoring creature, until she comes to a door.
Listening at it, she can hear people talking on the other side of the door. They appear to be arguing, with three voices ganging up on and insulting a fourth.
Peeping through a crack in the door, she sees four men sitting around a table.
Pataki makes a mental note to spare the fourth bandit so that we may rehome/kidnap him.
Back into the Night
She begins to leave, however as she does so, the creature reopens its door, lumbers to the door containing the bandits, and shouts something along the lines of "SHUTTHEFUCKUP" and returns to its chambers.
Luckily, Pataki manages to stay out of the way is returns to camp unnoticed.
After relaying what she saw back to the party, Gerung thinks the creature is an ogre - a man turned into a monster as a result of the consumption of human flesh.
The hour grows late and we decide to play our our assault upon the castle next week.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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