Forest of Wyrd Session #41 - The Queen of Ravens

 DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Jonesomon (Specialist 5)

Ranza (Changeling 4)

Gnarl (Wood Gnome 5)
Hobbs (Hedgefey 5) 

Thrax (Fighter 4)

Vegarious (Changeling 3) 

https://www.deviantart.com/fae-photography/art/The-Morrigan-574769825

The party (less Thrax and Ranza) stood their ground as the two figures approached. The pair were women, tall and dressed in black leather, while overhead circled a small flock of ravens. Once close enough, the two assumed a wary, but not threatening, stance and greeted the party. After some puzzlement about the tree, and inquiry into the party's business here in the ruined fortress, the two invited them back to the large tower to meet with their leader, the Queen of Ravens. The party demurred for now, interested more in getting the tree back to Allisan and ensuring Ranza was going to survive. The women allowed them to leave without interference, but instructed them to come see the Queen next time they visited the fortress. Meanwhile, while the women were distracted by the conversation, Gnarl had slyly cast charm animal and speak with animal  on one of the ravens to learn more. He got the impression from the corvid that the Queen meant the party no harm. But she feared both the shadow powers and the shapeshifters, and might be looking for allies to support her. He also learned something of the rest of the fortress; that the creatures of shadow dwelt somewhere below, a fomorian giant named Shangrat lived in the most distant square tower, and some mysterious ancient power inhabited the strange twin tower next to the wood.

Taking leave of the women, the party descended the switch back road once more. They were rejoined by the speedy Thrax, who had successfully delivered the stricken Ranza into the care of Allisan and Mikan. And reassured Mikan that the healthy sapling was on it's way, as it was obvious even to Thrax that Allisan was waning rapidly. The party crossed the river again and, finding that the mystical tower of rest had reappeared, settled there for the night before continuing on to rejoin Ranza at the tree house. There Mikan greedily took the sapling and planted it next to the house, vowing to build it into the structure once it was strong enough. He thanked the party, and told Thrax he could keep the Blade of the East Wind in gratitude. 

The party now was in a bit of a predicament. Rent was due on their home and the two henchman guarding it needed to be paid as well. So they would need to leave the valley and the fortress behind for now and return to Brakenrae. But Ranza was in no shape to travel. So she opted to stay with Allisan and Mikan while the rest recovered the raft to go south, take care of business and resupply, then return to continue exploration of Fortress Iacarta. Ranza also took this opportunity,  now that her brash and socially inept comrades were gone, to question Mikan some more about the area and his own past. The woodsman, more relaxed now than Allisan was on the mend, opened up a little to the changeling. He told her his secret; that he was a skinchanger who'd turned his back on that life when he met Allisan. He told here too about the Queen of Ravens; she was a skinchanger as well. The Raven was one of the totem animals of the mountain tribes; typically it was the only totem woman could use to become skinchangers. It appears the Queen of Ravens had turned on the tribes and somehow taken or claimed the totem as her own, and there was no love lost between them. Ranza filed that information away to pass on to the rest of the party when they returned .

The party itself recovered the raft and descended the river without interference. Stopping in Wickerwood along the way, however, they were shocked to find the town burned. Seeking out Sister Taritha, they learned Nimon the Gloaming Lord had descended upon the town with an army of ogres, buggleburrs, hobbs, other other fey. She didn't know why, and the fey lord didn't seem interested in taking anything. Just burning and pillaging it seemed. The party, somewhat sheepishly, stayed around for a bit to help and gave non-committal answers to the Sister's hints for help in dealing with The Gloaming Lord. But for now they were focused on the matter at hand; getting back to Brackenrae, which they reached the next day. 

After first checking in on the house and paying rent and wages, the party headed into town to shop and get news. In particular, they wondered if Nimon wasa threat here as well. Maybe the fey lord had his eyes on Brackenrae? It didn't seem so; there was no news to match that from Wickerwood. They did hears rumors of Skarling raiders on the roads around Twitten's Hollow, as well as mysterious knights on flying horses harassing travelers in the same area. These strangers were looking for someone or something, and would say only they were servants of the Pallid Queen.  

The party also went shopping for regular supplies, plus potions from Jaskin. When Thrax stopped in to see the irritable alchemist though, he was surprised to be upbraided by the man for Gnarl's overdue accounts. [At about the same time, Jonesomon was accosted by a pair of thugs accusing him of cheating them at cards a few days before.] It would appear their time twins were still about and causing grief for them. In any case, Thrax acted dumb and was able to spend much of the party's cash on a series of potions: 2x healing, extra healing, growth, and plant control. 

Business complete, the party headed north once more, stopping again at Wickerwood along the way and helping out a little to assuage their guilt.  Reaching Mikan and Allisan's, they found Ranza now fit and fully functional, and so they prepared to head back up the valley. There was some talk of going to see the witch, and give her the Book of Seven Souls in return for information. But for now they decided instead to go see the Queen of Ravens. They made it to the fortress without incident, and appeaching the Queen's tower, were met again by two woman. Whether they were the same two they could be sure. But the pair were aware of the party and their invitation. But they would not let them inside unless all were blindfolded; they did not fully trust the party yet. The group somewhat reluctantly agreed, and found themselves led blind into the tower. On the ground floor they were led carefully across a wood floor or walkway, then up the stairs to a level that smelled of birds and droppings, and sounded of ravens. Then another set of stairs through a non-descript area, and up a final stairway. There the blindfolds were removed and they could see around. They were in  large chamber, closed in by thick black velvet curtains. Overhead hung a massive iron chandelier blazing with hundreds of candles, while the floor was strewn with pillows and carpets. Lounging on a massive pile of pillows was a very tall, beautiful woman with long black hair, flanked by a trio of giant ravens. She introduced herself as Eileria, Queen of Ravens. She questioned the party, trying to gage their trustworthiness. To their own questions she gave truthful yet reserved answers, confirming in more detail what Gnarl already knew from questioning the raven and Ranza knew from talking to Mikan. They already knew about her enmity toward the skinchangers and the shadows; as for Shangrat the fomorian giant, she was non-committal but wouldn't complain if he were to disappear. They also learned that the other square tower in the curtain wall was a mystery; she'd lost a Ravensguard in there already and could offer no information other than be wary of whatever may lay there.

Speaking more about the ruined keep, she told them it blocked access to the caves below where the shadow creatures dwelt. It was sealed by someone (fey?) to keep the most dangerous shadow creatures imprisoned there; though as the party already knew there were ways for the lessor creatures to get our an wander the valley and fortress. She explained it could be opened by three seals; a golden poppy, a silver rose and a bronze aster. The giant Shangrat had one, though she knew not where the others lay. 

In the end, the party and the Queen came to an agreement on cooperation. The party was welcome to make use of the tower as a refuge while they explored the fortress as long as they brought no danger back with them. She would also help and support their goals as much as possible as long as she could call on them for the same when needed.

TOTAL XP

0

GAINS

none

KILLS/VICTORIES

none

LOSSES

none

Forest of Wyrd Session # 40 - Book & Bramble

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Jonesomon (Specialist 5)

Ranza (Changeling 4)

Gnarl (Wood Gnome 5)
Hobbs (Hedgefey 5) 

Thrax (Fighter 4)

Next morning, Hobbs suddenly remembered the rusty dagger from the offal cavern. He dug it out and poked at it a bit, discovering the pommel could be removed. And when he did so, out rolled a huge ruby. Useless junk indeed!

That done, once every else was up and prepared, the party descended once more to explore the tower below, making their way down the hillside covered in an overnight snowfall. At the base, Gnarl used the Greenstone of Earthseeing to search along the cliff face looking for secret places. Finding none, the party entered the tower. There was no wind (or invisible assailants) this time, and the party started to search along the floor. They soon found a loose flagstone, which when pried up revealed a narrow shaft. A dropped torch showed it was about 60' deep, so Hobbs was lowered down with a rope to have a look (the shaft was too narrow for any of the larger folks). At the bottom was a box, fitted so tightly into the shaft that hinge and padlock were barely accessible. Further inspection by Gnarl revealed it was made of lead, and was incredibly heavy. Possibly impossible to lift even if they could somehow get a rope around it. Instead, the wood gnome jammed an iron spike through the latch, and the party then rigged the block and tackle to generate enough force to snap off the lock (but only after consulting the quilt of augury to ensure it was safe to do so). After a few false starts, they succeeded and Hobbs once more went down into the hole. Carefully opening the lid, inside he found a sheet of parchment and a rectangular object wrapped in purple cloth.

Hobbs brought the objects back to the surface. On the parchment was written, in fine penmanship and perfect Common, the following: "Are you sure you want this? Be careful what you do with it". Humm. The object was found to be a book, bound in a cover of woven spider silk. Ranza volunteered to have a look, and although she really couldn't read much of it, she understood enough to confirm it was a tome of incantations and rituals for the witches' wood gods, and was the Book of Seven Souls they had been seeking. 

The party considered heading immediately to the witch and trade the book for more information. But in the end decided they should finally breach the fortress to carry out an initial scouting mission and recover Allisan's sapling. But first, they would retreat to the magical tower if available (it proved not to be) or the colossus to get a nights rest. Something about this ruined tower creeped them out even more than the shade hounds at the colossus. Once there, the giant eagle Elsivar greeted them and announced the hatching of her egg. She was in a good mood with the birth of her hatchling, and gladly ferried everyone up to the statues chest cavity, where they were fortunate to avoid any shade hounds and settled into the secret room for the night. 

Next day they headed up the valley towards the fortress. Fording the river and avoiding the ruined bridge, they found themselves standing at the base of the 500' cliff atop which perched Fortress Iacarta. There was some talk of climbing the rockslide formed by the collapsed wall and cliff, but no one wanted to risk the donkeys by crawling up that way or leaving them behind. So they instead picked up the switchback road that lead from the fallen bridge and up onto the plateau. All went well for the first little while. But then about halfway up, a sharp eyed Hobbs observed something leap off the ruined bridge tower below them. As it got closer, he could see it was a shadowy form in the shape of a winged lion. I swooped down on the rear of the column, lashing out with tooth and claw. It also proved difficult top hit, phasing in and out of position. But enough blows connected to knock it out of the sky. Examining the corpse, it looked in substance and style very similar to the shade hounds they'd fought back at the colossus. 

Continuing, the party reach the front gate of the Fortress without further incident. Rather than enter by the open gate, they opted to skirt around the ruined tower to their right and scramble over the fallen wall into the interior of the fortress. Inside, they observed there were four massive towers still largely intact and set into the outer wall; two round and two rectangular,. Against the face of the mountain was the tumbled ruin of a keep, while east of that was the fallen ruins of the small trade town that once stood inside the walls. And finally on the north side of that was a small grove of trees and another smaller tower. Assuming that was where they'd find Allisan's tree, the party headed that way. Along the way they examined a triumphal arch, carved with martial figure and topped with a weatherworn eagle & dragon statute. Once they reached the wood, they could see it was more a jumbled grove, thick with brambles and undergrowth. Meanwhile, they also noticed the tower alongside it was quite unusual. It was actually two towers, one square and ancient, the other round and somewhat more recent. But still older than the rest of the fortress. But ignoring those structures for now, the party plunged into the thicket behind Gnarl, who'd cast a find plant spell to quickly home in on the oak sapling. 

Thanks to Gnarl, it did not take long to find the healthy young tree in the middle of the maze. But as they pushed forward the last few yards, suddenly the brambles around them detached from the surrounding trees and coalesced into vaguely rotund humanoid figures. These raised arms and lashed out, driving poisoned thorns into Thrax and Ranza who'd been walking point. Ranza was hit badly enough to become entirely engulphed by one of the black brambles and it drove poison thorns deeper and deeper into the changelings flesh. The others tried to help her, but it was almost impossible to hit the creature without hurting her as well. It expired (and the other black bramble retreated) just as Ranza lapsed into unconsciousness. Thrax immediately leapt into action, grabbing Ranza and usied his sword to wind walk the two of them. This staunched the bleeding and stabilized her, then he rose into the air on raced south with her, hoping to get the changeling to Mikan and Allisan's in time to save her. 

The others dug up the sapling and dragged themselves, bitter and glum, out of the thicket. Once they emerged, they noticed a pair of figures standing outside the massive round tower to their south. They watched the party for a few moments, and then began to approach ... 

TOTAL XP 

1775

GAINS

Ruby (800sp) 

Book of Seven Souls

KILLS/VICTORIES

Silent Guardian 

Black Bramble

LOSSES

Ranza (almost)

Forest of Wyrd Session # 39 - Eya and the Cookie Wookie

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Ranza (Changeling 4)

Gnarl (Wood Gnome 5)
Hobbs (Hedgefey 5) 

Thrax (Fighter 4)

Rising in the late morning the next day, the party headed out into the heavy rain and wind, climbing up to the tree line to make their way north to the tower where they suspected the Synarian Beast had laired. Thy arrived in late afternoon, looking down on the tower from the hill above. The tower itself was partially built into the rock of the hillside, and there were signs of a faint trail leading onto it from above. Thrax scouted ahead, finding nothing on the top of the tower except a locked wooden door leading into the side of the hill. Looking down over the crenellations, he could also see a trail leading up the hillside to the base of the tower. 

The rest of the party joined the fighter; on close examination the door proved to be locked. But not too securely, as Hobbs managed to spring the mechanism with ease. The party debated a few moments whether they should enter, all getting a bad feeling about the situation. But finally, tired of the wind and rain, they boldly barged forward and stepped inside. A short passage led to a room of sorts. While there was the sense of it being a room, it was actually the scene of an infinite brooding dark forest under strange stars in a deep twilight sky. A stone door stood free in the midst of the forest, and to one side was a throne carved of stone. On it sat a short, squat figure with purple skin, hair of wildflowers and legs that ended in cloven hooves. The figure greeted the party, introducing himself as Eya. But that was about all they were able to get out of him (it?) Eya proved evasive, yet probed them with questions about their purpose here and what they feared. The party avoided answering the questions, especially the second as they suspected a trap. But Thrax did let it slip he feared empty cookie jars and teddy bears more than anything in the world. Eya also proved a master of illusion ,shifting form as he talked to disorient and confuse the party. When asked about the Book of Seven Souls that the witch told them was in this tower, he pulled the book out from the throne flipped through it then flippantly tore it into shreds and tossed it to the floor. 

Feeling they were seeing nothing but illusion and simultaneously irritated by, and fearful of, Eya, Gnarl led the party to the stone door and pulled it open. It led into a natural cavern and the party crowded in and closed the door behind them. This they suspected was the lair of the Synarian Beast, and here they hoped to find it's treasure. The first room they encountered however was filled with offal and bit of rotting flesh, fur and bone. They smell was atrocious and Thrax lost his supper. Ranza, however, did not a glint of treasure and carefully fished a gold ring out of one of the piles. But the party opted to not disturb the rest for now, instead moving on. 

In the next cavern they found a strange crystal 'cyst' on the wall, along with scattered remains of  crystal shards from broken cysts on the floor. Inside the cyst swirled a multi-coloured mist. The party tried a number of tricks to remove the cyst from the wall. But in the end, all they did was break and release the mist. This temporarily filled most of the cavern, and when it cleared it left behind a giant ceramic cookie jar. Out of which erupted a huge furry humanoid, almost 10' tall and equip with a deadly array of claws and teeth. It charged forward, and Thrax struck it with his sword; said sword unfortunately stuck in the creature and was yanked from the fighters hand. Ranza responded with hypnotism,  and was successful in calming the strange brute by suggesting that it do no harm to them. That left the problem of the magic sword still struck in it's side, but Ranza once more was able to convince the beast to let them remove it and they would heal him. Which they did.  Ranza then had the creature sit and rest, while the party headed out to explore more of the caverns, confident the had placated the savage beast. 

They discovered an opening that led out onto the hillside and overlooked the valley below. Ignoring that, they continued through the caverns down a series of twisting passages. At one interaction, the floor collapsed under Thrax and dumped him into a sinkhole. One, he noted, with no other entrance or exit. In another cavern they found stalactites and stalagmites; though on closer inspection the stalagmites were found to be piles of excrement. 

Finding nothing else of interest, the party returned to the offal cavern. This time in was Ranza who started upchucking while the rest of the party turned to sift through the rotting and festering material. They did recover a number of items: gold rings; a locket; several hundred mixed coins; a rusty dagger inscribed with devotionals to St Bilian, patron saint of lost causes; a silver seal in the shape of a rose; and a large green gem. On close examination, this gem proved to be magical; Gnarl learned this Greenstone of Earthseeing  allowed him to see through solid rock for a short time, though the process did temporarily blind him each time. But of more immediate interest was a roaring sound from the next cavern; it seemed their furry foe/friend had shaken off the effects of Ranza's spell. The monster burst in and started to slash and bite. The party responded with their swords, while Ranza blinded the creature. In short order and with surprisingly little damage to themselves, the party felled the fearsome teddy bear.  

Leaving the dead beast and offal smell behind, the party headed back through the caverns so Gnarl could use the greenstone of earthseeing to search for any hidden rooms or treasure. Alas, it was to no avail as nothing was found. The party now returned through the door to Eya's lair, but were not overly surprised to find him gone. There was nothing left but an empty room and a pile of moldering books (which did not contain the Book of Seven Souls). Gnarl used the greenstone again to look for hidden things but again found nothing.  Still convinced there was more to be found, they party moved into the tower itself to search. The tower was simply an empty shell, and around the inside wall a stone stair looped down towards the bottom. The other notable point was the vicious wind; much greater than expected event given the outside gale and the poor condition of the tower. And then, as the party got halfway down the stairs, they were struck by some sort of invisible creatures. Tottering on the narrow perch, Thrax used his sword's gust of wind to push them back, while Gnarl tossed a leftover flour bombs to make their foes visible. The wood gnome was successful, and a pair of humanoid figures were outlined for them. Once was fairly quickly slain, and the other fled through an opening in the side of the tower. 

It now getting late, and with everyone more than a little tied, the party opted to retreat to the room above and rest for the night before proceeding. 

TOTAL XP 

3359

GAINS

136sp & 113cp

4 golden rings [25sp each]

Silver chain with golden locket and blue gem [600sp]

Curved dagger etched with devotionals to St. Bilian, the patron saint of lost causes [0sp]

Silver Rose Seal [20sp] 

Greenstone of Earthseeing [800xp] 

KILLS/VICTORIES
The Cookie Wookie

1 Windwalker

LOSSES

none

Forest of Wyrd Session # 38 - The Synarian Beast

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Ranza (Changeling 4)

Gnarl (Wood Gnome 5)
Hobbs (Hedgefey 5) 

Thrax (Fighter 3)

The party gathered their treasure and put their minds once more to dealing with the giant eagle nesting in the head above. Based on the legionary standard they'd just recovered, Hobbs thought there might be some connection between the eagle and the long fallen Imperium. So Thrax was dressed in a legionary uniform stripped from one of the men in statis, and placed the standard on the end of a spear. Then standing in the chest opening, he sounded the bugle to get the eagles attention. Which it did, the avian once more flying down to confront the party, but refraining from pecking eyes and  entrails for the moment. Gnarl then cast speak with animals to open conversation. They learned they eagle knew nothing of the Imperium, so Thrax was able to change back into his usual clothes. The eagle (Elsivar) was quite intelligent, and the party learned this as her usual nesting site. She currently had an egg in her care. And her biggest worry was a creature known as the Synarian Beast, a scintillating winged thing she feared would destroy her egg or young fledgling once it hatched. She was quite interested in making a deal with the party; she would help be their eyes and ears if they would destroy the Beast. She also offered her treasure, half now and half after  the Beast was dead. She agreed they could use the colossus as a refugee, but warned the shade hounds frequently appeared in the darkened room by some unknown means. 

The party agreed, but informed Elisixar they must rest and prepare first. The eagle departed, and as it was now evening, the party decided to take their chances here in the colossus. They barred themselves in the secret alter room for the night; a good plan as they could hear a shade hound sniffing outside their door during the night. It unfortunately was still lingering in the morning, for it emerged and howled just as the the party was exiting the chest cavity via rope. Hobbs and Ranza were already on the ground, but Gnarl was just starting to descend and Tharx still stood rear guard. The howl once more drove Thrax mad, and he bulled past Gnarl to escape down the rope. The wood gnome, being made of stern stuff but muttering some unkind words for the big human warrior who nearly plummeted him to his death, escaped unaffected. 

Once safe and away, the party headed for the refuge tower to rest a few days and let Ranza recover from her grievous wounds. Unfortunately it was not there when they arrived, and in fact there was no sign of there ever being a tower there. They decided to push on and return to Mikan and Allisan's cabin to rest in safety. They were once more greeted kindly, though Mikan was somewhat gruff when he learned they hadn't even been near the fortress yet, let alone recovered the sapling for Allisan. They stayed quite a few days as Ranza needed a long rest, and they also obtained three more healing poultices from Allisan before heading out again. They climbed back up the hillside to avoid the trolls in the valley, and headed back to the colossus to meet Elsivar. By this time they'd figured the Synerian Beast must nest somewhere in or around the valley's northernmost tower, and that tower was their ultimate goal. They received from Elsivar part of her treasure (a wand of bees claimed by Ranza)  and then settled into the secret room once more to rest the night. But of course only after once more dealing with the shade hound which once more turned Thrax into a quivering bowl of fear. But it was driven off with no further issue. 

Once more their rest was disturbed though,  but this time by a racket outside. They heard Elsivar and some other creature screaming at each other, and the sound of massive wings cut the night. The party, thinking perhaps the Synerian Beast had come to them as it did in the refuge tower, bust out of the room and headed out to look. Indeed, in the sky above they could see the giant eagle and a scintillating draconic creature circling each other. The appearance of the party seemed to spook the Beast, and it broke away and flew off to the north. The party scrambled to the top of the statue with Elsivar's help, and prepared a trap for the beast. The giant eagle flew off to grab a deer from the forest to use as bait to lure the beast back, then flew out of site so as to not spook the flying creature with it's presence. The party then raised a racket, and soon the Beast did return. It cleverly did not land in the middle of the trap, however, instead clinging onto the edge of the colossus and biting viciously down on Hobbs. Thrax guzzled a potion of heroism, Ranza used her new wand of bees to summon some help and Gnarl laid down a snare and stumble  on top of the colossus's head. Unfortunately, the kaleidoscopic scales of the Beast caused great confusion, and most of the bees turned to attack the party. As Hobbs continued to get chomped, Ranza blinded the Beast. This caused it to get confused and disoriented, such that it stumbled into snare/stumble. There, momentarily pinned and helpless, it soon met it's end under the combined blows of the party, and the body crashed to the earth below.

Elsivar now emerged to cry her thank, and offered over the rest of here treasure; a series of gems hidden inside a hollow human femur. Gnarl recovered from trophies (hide, scales and teeth) from the Beast and then the party got ready to settle in again and rest after a battle well fought. 

TOTAL XP

5720

GAINS

Gems (10sp, 3x75sp, 2x750sp)

Wand of Bees

KILLS/VICTORIES
The Synarian Beast

LOSSES

none