Orm is suitably impressed by Hokkaido's skills. Ignoring his mother's query about that other guy, he has eyes only for Hokkaido. "How did you do that?" he whispers in awe.
Mjoli pokes his brother, saying, "Next time, take me with you. I'll make sure you don't get lost!" Orm sticks out his tongue, and the boys fall to bickering (as they do).
Nadya intervenes, "No one is going anywhere except to bed! Now!" After considerable griping and wheedling, Nadya settles her boys down.
Meanwhile, Ailmar returns to the camp. The young wolf can be seen, watching, hovering near the treeline.
A the group packs up and moves on down the road the next day, the young wold follows, keeping a safe distance. After each meal, Ailmar leaves some of his food for the wolf. The wolf grows bolder, following and approaching more closely as the days go on.
I don't like the look of those crows... Copper, can you do your mini-dragon impression again, like you did atop the ice tower? Eiji asks aloud.
Might save Ailmar and me time hunting, and The Rock will only have to worry about side dishes he thinks to himself.
That is quite the constable of ravens. Hokki, do you have any insights into this?
Catriona thinks back on her studies to see if she remembers anything about ravens and casts Detect Magic to see if they are magical in origin.
@Ailmar What say you, Ailmar?
Hey youuuuuu guys! Those are some weird-ass ravens!
@ the Party Those ravens are not behaving naturally. I don't know how ravens are supposed to behave, but not like that.
Weirdly, I seem to have a knowledge gap in ravens that only lets me know if they're acting naturally or not. I guess they didn't get the memo to "fly casual"
I quite agree Catriona. All things considered, my guess is the answer lies more closely to your realm of expertise than mine.
Ailmar studies the unkindness for a bit, hoping to glean a more precise sense of what it is they're up to.
Vostok looks up from his scrolls and book for a moment,
Huh, those ravens are acting weird.
He promptly buries his head back into his scrolls and book. Noticing his pipe has gone out
Hey, Copper, could you help a tiefling out?
Copper eyes Vostok, but decides that she would rather burn birds.
The ravens close on the group, but given Catriona's timely heads-up, Copper is able to blast them.
DC 15 reflex for half...
...and fails, taking 15 damage.
The swarm then converges on...
Eiji it is!
...who gets an attack of opportunity.
Catriona activates her spring-loaded wrist sheathes, her wands at the ready.
You dare test my icy mettle, ye bastard ravens!?!
The few remaining ravens, now, perhaps, more aptly named a pair, fly off heading directly north towards Whitethrone. You see no further sign of them.
Finally, a week out from Waldsby, you arrive in Ellsprin. Nadya explains, "My sister's home is on a small farm just to the other side of town... It is very small, though. You will likely be better served to find some accommodations at the tavern, as you did in Waldsby. How long are you planning on staying? Or must you be off immediately?"
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Thank you for the advice, Nadya. Perhaps we should accompany you to your sister's house in case we ever need to know where to find a friendly face. Also, would you mind pointng out the places of interest as we stroll through the town? I stick out as it is. I'd prefer at least to have a look of "I know where I'm going" about me.
Ellsprin
N thorp
Corruption -2; Crime -3; Economy -2; Law -2; Lore -3; Society +2
Qualities insular
Danger -5
DEMOGRAPHICS
Government council
Population 16 (13 humans, 2 halflings, 1 dwarf)
Notable NPCs
Tavern Owner Thildega Halls (NG female human bard 4)
Smith Erlan Urnst (LN male dwarf expert 4/warrior 1)
Trading Post Owner Mr. Harlen Gnoat (NE male human expert 2)
MARKETPLACE
Base Value 55 gp; Purchase Limit 500 gp; Spellcasting 1st
Minor Items
[750 gp] wand of bless (CL 1)
[2,000 gp] ring of protection (+1) [clue indicates function]
[750 gp] wand of entropic shield (CL 1)
Medium Items —
Major Items —
Catriona sends Archimedes to perch on a tree outside of town to keep watch for anyone approaching Ellsprin. She pulls up her hood and tries to see if there are any wanted posters for her on any of the buildings.
During our last day in Ellsprin, as we were preparing for our journey to Whitethrone, we heard a shriek outside the home of Nadya's sister. As we rushed out to investigate, we saw that Nadya's brother-in-law had been killed by Fey who were intent upon killing everyone in sight.
If I can, I'd like to grab a "plain" cold iron greatsword and sell my old one before we head out.
If I can, I'd like to grab a "plain" cold iron greatsword and sell my old one before we head out.
I'm beginning to suspect that Nadya is not the innocent we first took her to be. Everywhere she goes those around her wind up dead. There's something not right about this woman. Even her "sister" is a bit weird. Not just "my husband was randomly murdered by a blue midget gnome and a particularly violent shrubbery" weird, but also a "I sleep with goatmen" kinda weird. Not judging. Just saying...
So now her goatson is helping on the farm - which has got to qualify as some sort of irony, right?
And we're okay with all this because he was tied up in a barn with another blue midget gnome. Hehe. Reminds me of when Vos got in trouble with- but that's a story for another time.
Before word of the untimely passing of Nadya's brother-in-law, may he have died before it could be our fault, we decided to
flee the scenemake haste to a larger locale, the better todisappear into a crowdfurther our efforts to free The Hut. Specifically, Nadya, woman of dubious character and shady connections that she is, believes she can contact some sort of summer resistance (no doubt someone else she knows will end up dead then). Our witch knows about them, so ask Cat.As seems to be our plight in this frozen hell of a country, a random stranger waylaid us on the road asking for help. She was a gorgeous redhead and seemed absolutely out of place in the middle of the woods. She's a woman, so absolutely not trustworthy. Also, she’s absolutely some other kind of fey. This land is just evil women fighting evil fey with the lot of us caught in the middle. And snow.
She spins an accented tale about trolls and moss and missing fingers. Trolls are probably some sort of fey, and probably women too. Our ranger, being the foolish and noble type declares his instant love for her and we all set off to find her missing fingers. I think. Ailmar follows some tracks, as rangers are wont to do, and they lead to a cave. Not a particularly strange cave. A low cave roof, some craggy cave walls, and a flat cave floor.
It's decided that Hoki should lead the way, so, Ailmar promptly barged in first. The idiot screams something about not touching s***, inspiring musing on the presence of bats in these northern caves.
What followed was, as usual, confusion. A man covered in moss or, more rightly, mold lumbered toward us, wood axe in hand. Feeling very threatened by this lumbering, my colleagues began to rain death upon him. To which the moldman responded by raining mold on them. Then Vos had to go and try to magic again. That nice, flat cave floor I mentioned was suddenly no longer flat. The mold man was now in a twenty foot deep hole. Thanks Vos. I feel like you don't know how to kill something even if you wanted to. The casters all jabber about mold insulating our brains which gives me a bright idea: The Rock doesn't have a brain! He flies into the pit to remove the mold. It was a solid plan by all accounts, but the moldman didn't want to be sanitized and instead climbed out of Vos's ultimate magical trap. And don't ask me how, but the ranger shoots the mold off him. Unfortunately, Hoki has been well insulated by this time, I assume, because he stabs me.
The birdbrain gets tied up and knocked out for the trouble. That reminds me of another time when Vos got into trouble- but another story for another time.
All this effort, and we just end up taking the moldman back to the probably evil fey thing that lives in a cabin in the middle of the woods. He's probably going to be eaten or have his soul stolen, or made into a suit... but he gave me a magic bear trap! Also, Ailmar got lucky.
Near the end of the next day of travel, just before sunset, you see a small village. As you get closer you see that most of the buildings are little more than piles of snow-covered stones, with crumbled sections of their walls rising from the ruins. The only structure that might offer temporary shelter appears to be an old temple inside a walled circular churchyard with an arch at the entrance. The front door of the temple has rotted away, but a smooth stone circle engraved with the outline of a butterfly is mounted above the doorway.
Catriona remembers hearing of this place during one of her many lessons. Not wanting to regale the party with all the sordid details of the sad tale of the temple's end, she tells the party the basics.
This was a Temple of Desna during the great Winter War, but was overrun by Baba Yaga's army.
A Desnan temple, that's good, right?
Looks abandoned. We can shelter here for the night.
Maybe Desna can keep out marauding fey troll women.
Eiji promptly enters the temple.
As the sun nears setting, Eiji, presumably channeling his former master, boldly enters the churchyard and strides towards the temple. To his surprise, he finds a person in the churchyard who addresses him, "Run along and play, child. I'm sure you won't be waiting much longer,"
Ailmar, bow in hand heaves a sigh and follows Eiji. What could possibly go wrong with this?
Watching Eiji run towards the temple, Catriona shakes her head.
What is the big oaf doing now? This is why we can't have nice things.
Refusing to enter the temple, Catriona wanders about the temple grounds/yard, perusing anything of interest.
Twenty feet from the entrance of the church, a group of ghostly, translucent children appear in the churchyard, crying for their parents and screaming as ghostly trolls and giants enter the churchyard and begin snatching them up. The palpable despair of the children sweeps over any living creature in the courtyard.
Additionally, just after the suns sets, the person in the courtyard no longer appears quite as human and alive as first supposed.
Edit: Forgot to do the will save, which could have affected initiative (since it's an ability check)
I almost have to assume this creature is of malintent...
Huecuva: Rotting vestments hang across the withered flesh of this walking corpse, and its mouth hangs open in a silent scream.
Standard undead traits:
*Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
*Immunity to death effects, disease, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.
*Not subject to nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. *Immune to damage to its physical ability scores (Constitution, Dexterity, and Strength), as well as to exhaustion and fatigue effects.
*Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless).
Huecuvas are the risen corpses of heretical clerics who blasphemed and renounced their deities before meeting death. During daylight hours, a huecuva becomes shrouded in an illusion that causes it to appear as it did in life—at these times, a huecuva might seek to infiltrate society to dwell among those it hates. When night falls, it emerges to seek out its prey.
Most huecuvas remember little of their former lives except for the blasphemies that led them to their cursed fates. They often find themselves drawn to the ruins of old temples, where they rage against or seek hopeless absolution from the deities who so afflicted them.
The huecuvas attack may cause disease.
Filth fever: Injury; save Fort DC 12; onset 1d3 days; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Dex damage and 1d3 Str damage; cure 2 consecutive saves.
If you failed the will save and you want to add your modifier, just post the total based on this roll when you check in.
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Initiative Order:
- Vostok
- Bad Guy
- Ailmar
- Hokkaido
- Eiji
- Catriona
- Copper