A Midsummer Abduction (D&D 3.5, Homebrew)

[MichaelK]

Introduction

This storyhour retells the events of my ongoing 3.5e Dungeons and Dragons campaign. This is partly as an attempt to keep track of the events, so that I won't forget anything later and also just an artistic endeavour to make an enjoyable storyhour for people to read (and for me to practise my writing).

The game started off a bit on the fly, I was helping the players to make their character for a prospective D&D game I'd run in a week or two's time. Once the characters were done though, no one wanted to wait. We played a massive 12 hour session that night, then since we all had the next night off as well did another 12 hour session. With 24 hours of off the cuff gametime behind us, I'm going to need this record to keep track of everything.

I will be updating this story hour several times a week but not on specific days as it depends on my work roster for that week. We normally will play the game on an approximately fortnightly basis. So if I ever catch up to present in game-time, then there may be a delay before the next update. I'll announce it if I do catch up, in addition to dancing several jigs and throwing a party.
We'll start at the beginning. The same place the story began. This will be told in a narrative form, but is as close to the events of the gaming session as my memory will allow. I'll attach footnotes for any relevant game mechanics and these will be at the bottom of each post.

The Dramatis Personae​

Session 1 Introduces:

Arelon (Played by James): A very studious wizard, apprenticed to Gauwyn the town mage of Rochester Village.
Sienna (Played by Andrew): A travelling midwife, healer and priestess of Atroa (the Maiden of Spring).
Santiago (Played by Winston): A duelist for hire, a needed profession in civilized lands but with little to do in the countryside.

Session 2 Introduces:

Bridget (Played by Amanda): A young woman with something of a shady past, volunteering for the rescue party.
Adair (Played by Adam): An elvish hermit and tracker, was volunteered to take his friend's place in the rescue party.​

Part 1 - Pranks Become Serious

Sienna had been within Rochester Village for a few weeks now. She had arrived in time to deliver the first baby of summer and would be in town long enough to attend to the two women who were due soon. Hopefully she'd be there long enough to enjoy the midsummer festival. Although their faiths were different, the small chapel of Yondalla had taken the young priestess of Atroa in and offered her a room while she stayed.

She had spent the morning gathering a small pile of mushrooms for her breakfast, down by the bank of the river with some of the town's children. Her foraging was rather successful until it was interrupted by a burst of energy and the appearance of a man out of thin air. Although startled she quickly recognized Gauwyn, a conjurer who lived within the town.

Gauwyn spoke quickly as he took the last few steps to where she stood, "I'm sorry to startle you, but my apprentice has done something foolish. He needs help or he may die."
"Lead the way" Sienna said. Gauwyn placed a hand upon her shoulder and with a few arcane words reality folded around them.

For a single brief moment Sienna saw endless white light around them, crossed by uncountable numbers of silver threads. Time did not exist in this realm and that moment seemed to take an eternity and simultaneously no time at all. She had never before seen the Astral plane, even in so brief a transit as a teleportation involved.

The vision of the Astral plane vanished. She found herself along with Gauwyn in the mage's stone tower. The mage's apprentice Arelon lay upon an oak table, hastily cleared of arcane supplies and instruments. A few cloths had been laid over his wounds but Gauwyn knew nothing of medicine and despite his efforts blood still coated the table and was pooling beneath the table legs.

Sienna could see that the apprentice was within moments of passing to the next world. She was forced to pull open his shirt, as whatever strange force had struck him had passed harmlessly through the cloth to tear apart the flesh and bone beneath. Muttering "Mother, bless this body" over and over she pushed the wound closed, her hands glowing a bright vibrant green. With the wound closed he was in no further danger of death,1 but he was still weak from blood loss. She lay one hand upon his forehead and the other over his chest, now the real work would begin.

Arelon woke with a gasp. Although for a moment he felt pain it quickly ebbed away as he could feel the pure energy of life flooding back into his body. He looked up into the familiar and reassuring face of Sienna. "Thankyou" he said.
"Yes, thankyou." Gauwyn said, pressing a small heap of golden coins into Sienna's hand despite her protestations that it was unnecessary.
"And you," Gauwyn begun, turning on Arelon, "you need to apologize to the Mephit. He regrets that his reprisal for your prank came so close to killing you, but is still quite wrathful. Remember that he is a noble within the frosted lands that he is from. And do not trouble my studies again, take the day off or something, go outside."

Gauwyn returned to his library and with a loud sigh of mixed relief and aggravation locked the door behind him.
"If you've got the day off, would you like to pick some mushrooms with me down by the river?" Sienna asked.
"That would be great" Arelon said.
"Can I see the Mephit?"

They went together into a small room of the tower that felt like it was still in the very midst of winter. Ice coated every surface of the room and formed a thin sheet within the window like a pane of glass. A small winged man, formed completely of ice stood upon the table within. Tiny horns upon his head and a small tail gave him a devilish aspect, but his manner was far more offended and embarassed than malevolent.

As Arelon entered the room, the Mephit turned and looked out the window, pointedly ignoring him. Sienna came in behind and went over to the Mephit, curtsying to him.
"Your highness" she said politely, "I am Sienna". He returned the bow and introduced himself in kind,
"My lady, I am Sveoshala Dir Ardria. Pleasure to meet you." He said, then compelled by etiquette turned to face Arelon, "Boy".

"Swoosh. I'm sorry I put that thunderstone under your pillow, but it was only in retalliation for you freezing my morningstar..." The Mephit interrupted him in his most haughty tone,
"Already you make excuses. Your apology is meaningless."
Remembering the magic missile volley that had left him bleeding to death on the tower floor, Arelon swallowed his anger long enough to say,
"Okay, I'm sorry."

After Sienna bid the Mephit a farewell he turned back unable to hold it in any longer. In Auran he hissed,
"This isn't over yet."
"Of course it's not." The Mephit said back in Auran, "It never is with you." and turned back towards the window, not watching them leave.

1. We play with the rule that a person on negative hit points is brought back to 1 hit point if they receive even a single point of magical healing. Sienna used a cure minor wounds to bring his hitpoints from -9 up to 1, then a cure light wounds to heal him completely.
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[MichaelK]

Pranks Become Serious (continued).

When they reached the river back, Sienna was not surprised to see her carefully picked mushrooms gone. She couldn't blame kids for being kids, so she just started again from scratch with the few mushrooms that remained. Arelon joined her as she pointed out the difference between the good edible mushrooms and the ones that would make you sick.

They were interrupted by a small child, a little boy no older than 4, tugging on Sienna's sleeve.
"Sorry 'bout your mushes Se-na. We told the little man they was yours but he just ated them all up." he said.
"What little man?" Sienna asked. The little boy paused, having used up about the extent of his vocabulary already. His older brother, around 12, took over.
"The little cricket man. He had a body just like a cricket, but his top half was like a man's. He was only a few inches tall and he was carrying a tiny little violin. He kept asking us lots of questions." He paused for a moment as it occurred to him how ridiculous this sounded, "Honest, it really happened."

Arelon looked over at Sienna,
"It sounds like a fey, but I don't recognize that type". 1
"Do you get a lot of fey around this town?"
"No, never seen them before".

They discussed the fey for a while as they picked mushrooms. Arelon saw Sienna placing the mushrooms into her gathered dress and saw the perfect opportunity to practice one of his newest spells. He made a few gestures and conjured a floating disk of pure magical energy.
"Here, put your mushrooms in the Tenser's floating disk. It'll hold as many as we want to pick."

Together they loading the disk with a whole bunch of mushrooms and set back for the town. They'd barely set foot past the first building when a panicked looking man ran up to Sienna. She recognised Andoran, the husband of one of the women she was taking care of.
"Sienna. Come quick, come quick. Gwella's water broke."

Sienna gave up on a hot mushroom breakfast and started chewing on them raw as she hiked her skirts up and made her way quickly to Gwella's little farmstead on the edge of town. Taking charge as she came in the door, she gave everyone a job to do as they prepared for Gwella to enter labour. Seeing Andoran's nervousness at the birth of his first child she sent him down to the riverbank to gather muckweed, a pointless task to keep him out of the way.

With Sienna's skill as a healer and midwife the labour went swiftly and easily. The blessings of her magic allowed an easy and near painless birth. After only a short time she was handing Gwella her child announcing,
"It's a beautiful baby boy. Have you thought of names at all?"
"Well, we thought it was going to be a girl, I was so sure. But we did say if it was a boy we'd call him Berei, after my grandfather."

Andoran returned a short time later and Sienna went to tell him the good news. Before she did though, she noticed a stunned expression on his face, "What is it?" She asked.
"I saw a strange little creature down by the river. I think it was a fairy."

After sharing the good news with Andoran, Sienna and Arelon left the couple to enjoy the moment together as a family.
"Maybe we should go down to river and see if we can find that little fey."
"Let's have lunch first. My father should be home, we can go have lunch with him."

Arelon led her to his father's house, one of the largest and finest in the village. Fancier certainly than Gauwyn's mage tower which looked rather like a squat mill or stone grain silo. He didn't seem to be in the front living area so they went through to his laboratory in the back, found him in front of a large array of alchemical equipment a mysterious red liquid flowing through the glass tubings to fill a conical flask at the end.

After some brief small talk and introductions, Arelon went over to see what his father was working on. He sniffed the tube and looked at some of the ingredients that were being mixed into it.
"Salt, pepper, tomato... Dad, are you making tomato soup in the alchemy equipment again? You know how hard it is to clean out."
His father rather sheepishly decanted the soup into a conical flask which he held out,
"Gaspacho anyone?"

1. Here begins a tradition where for the next two sessions, every single knowledge: nature roll comes up no higher than 3. In a game that so far has been all about the fey, this has been rather crippling for the group.
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[MichaelK]

Pranks Become Serious (Continued)

After a fairly pleasant, if awkward, lunch Sienna and Arelon made their way down to the riverbank to seek out the small fey that had been described to them. As they stood on the river bank a deep booming voice sounded from behind them.

"Who are you?! What do you want?!"

Expecting a fey illusion, neither of them paid the tone of intimidation any head and simply introduced themselves to the thin air, explaining that they are searching for a fey that had been seen in the area. They asked if he was the fey and if he'd introduce himself. From out of the river climbed a Grig, a fey matching the description they had been given. Built like a centaur, but with the body of a cricket and built to that same scale. He held a tiny fiddle and bow.

"Here I am" he said, shaking himself off like a dog might. "But I don't want to tell you my name, you're the apprentice of that summoner. He might try to summon and bind me." 1
"I promise I won't tell him your name." Arelon said.
"Oh... all right. I'm Grikshaw. There's some nice Muckweed over there if you're looking for some... there was another human out here searching for it before."

Sienna explained about the birth, being a midwife and needing to get rid of the nervous father for a little while. Grikshaw pulled out a tiny scrap of parchment from a pouch and started scribbling down some details. His scribbles got even more frantic once Sienna mentioned the other two women due soon.
"Oh, very interesting. Very interesting indeed."

From there the conversation turned to the midsummer festival and the dancing that would be expected then. Arelon confessed that he didn't know how to dance.
"Well I could teach you." Sienna said.
"And I could play the music." The grig said chirpily. "Tell you what, meet me here tonight just after sunset and I'll perform while you dance."
"Okay, we'll do that." Sienna agreed.

1. Technically speaking this isn't actually possible, but just because they're fey doesn't mean they're not superstitious about the capacities of wizards.
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[MichaelK]

Pranks Become Serious (Continued)

Sienna and Arelon left Grickshaw behind and returned to the village, stopping past the home of Gwella and Andoran to check on the couple and their new baby.

Andoran was outside, splitting firewood with his axe. He seemed distracted, unleashing anger at the wood as he struck violently at it. Concerned Sienna and Arelon asked what was going on.
"Our orchard. All the apples are gone.", Andoran said, "We had not finished picking them yet, there were still plenty of baskets worth on the trees. Now they're all gone, not eaten by birds, there are no cores left, just gone."

They went around to the orchard with Andoran and as he had described the trees stood with bare branches as though they had never held fruit at all.
"When was the last time you checked on them?" Sienna asked.
"My wife and I went for a walk through the orchard early in the morning and they were still there. This afternoon I thought I should finish picking them, make sure there's enough food with another person in the family. This is how I found them."
"You said you had baskets to collect them, can I see where you keep them?"

They went into the shed where plenty of empty baskets stood balanced up against the wall. None seemed to be missing. Andoran showed them through to the back where there were barrels full of apples.
"Wouldn't they just steal the ones we've already picked? Why take them off the trees?"
"When you went for your walk this morning, did you or your wife see anyone else in the orchard?" Sienna asked.
"Only Lucy. She was in there gathering worms for her soil, said she was hoping to improve her crop this year."
"We'll look into this for you, try to find out what's happened." Sienna said.

The two went through town to check on the other four orchards Arelon knew of. Each one was empty, just like Gwella and Andoran's orchard. They stood in the final orchard, discussing a variety of theories. As they begun to consider the idea that magic may have been involved Arelon turned to face the orchard and cast a spell to open his awareness to the presence of magic.

He could sense a single aura of magic covering the entire orchard. Wizards describe such an aura as 'Moderate', though for Arelon it was one of the strongest fields he had ever sensed. This was no lingering trace, there was still magic upon these trees. When Arelon tried to recognize what sort of spell had been performed though, he found the energies too strong and confusing, he could not pick out any single element that he could recognize.

They went quickly to Gauwyn's tower and knocked upon the door to his library.
"Master, I know you said not to interrupt you, but there's a powerful spell in one of the orchards and all the fruit are gone off the trees." Arelon said. With a grumble Gauwyn emerged from his library.
"Show me."

In the orchard Gauwyn performed the same spell and began lecturing Arelon as though this were any other class.
"This is an illusion spell, judging from its effect and duration I would guess it to be a Hallucinatory Terrain spell. An effect which can make a terrain look different from how it actually is, the apples are still there just shrouded in an illusion. To be able to cast a spell such as this, a mage would have to be almost as strong as myself. To cast five in one day would take a very strong mage indeed."

Gauwyn spoke a few words and gestured towards the orchard banishing the magic fuelling the other spell with a spell of his own. Like a fog parting, the apples slowly came into full view, dangling from the branches just as normal.
"They could be casting it from a device", Arelon said, "A scroll, wand or staff."
"Or there could be more than one illusionist." Sienna said. "Could the fey be involved? Stories say they are tricksters and illusionists. We saw one by the river today, he looked like a small man with the body of a cricket."

"Hmm, I do not recognize the kind", 1 Gauwyn said, "But I don't know much about the fey. It's certainly a possibility, power can come in all sizes and we shouldn't dismiss him as a possible illusionist. I suspect the other fields will be covered in similar illusions, you can see through them if you concentrate hard enough on the possibility that what you see is not real. I'll let you check on the rest, I have prepared no more detect or dispel magics."

As Gauwyn returned to his tower, Sienna and Arelon discussed who they could ask who might know more about the fey. They finally settled on Heshe, the strange old lady who lived away from town by the edge of the forest. People called her a witch and told stories of how she had eaten her own children, but between the priestess and apprentice mage they knew all too well that magic frightened people into inventing all sorts of tales.

Arelon set off down the path out of the village to see Heshe at her home, while Sienna went to tell Gwella and Andoran the good news.

1. Thus continuing the tradition of bad rolls for Knowledge: Nature checks.
​

 

[MichaelK]

Pranks Become Serious (continued)

Sorry about the delay in updating, I've had trouble logging into ENworld lately.

Gwella and Andoran were pleased to hear that their fruit had not been stolen away, but found it had to understand exactly what had happened. If it had not been for the trust they had for Sienna and the mage Gauwyn's diagnosis they wouldn't have believed this insane tale of illusions and invisible fruit.

Sienna realized that with all the orchards in town cloaked by these illusions, it could only be a matter of time before the people of Rochester started to panic. She needed to find a way to let everyone know what was going on. Hefting her pack of herbal medicines onto her back she set off looking for the priest of Yondalla.

When she found the priest she brought him to Gwella and Andoran's orchard. She stood there gathering her force of will and stared at the branches, forcing herself to consider the possibility that what she was seeing was false. After a few moments the vision in front of her warped and twisted, as gaps opened up and the fruit became visible she reached out and plucked one of the apples from the branches.

The priest gasped as he saw an apple plucked from thin air. Yet as Sienna explained the illusion that covered the trees he found his own senses beginning to pierce the veil of magic over the orchard. When he saw the apples himself he praised Yondalla's grace and pledged to assure the town that the Provider Goddess had not forsaken them.


Arelon made his way up the rough hewn path, past the grassy hills where the shepherds brought their flock all the way up to the edge of the woods. Few people ever entered these woods or went further than the outer edge. There was not even anything so formal as a superstition, just a bad feeling that nothing good would come from visiting those woods or even talking about them.

Right on the edge of the woods stood a small lonely house, sagging in upon itself and looking half ready to collapse. He approached and knocked gently upon the door. From inside a shrill voice cried,
"Who is it calling upon Heshe?" then as he gave his name her voice shifted into a more typical softly spoken voice and she opened the door, "Oh hello deary, you're Gauwyn's apprentice aren't you? Come on in and let me have a look at you."

He walked into the relative darkness of the room, a small window let in a thin shaft of sunlight and in the hearth a small fired blazed beneath an old iron kettle. All around him eyes gleamed in the dark and only the purring gave away that they were just cats. The house was overrun by cats of every shape and size. Heshe shuffled her way over to the fireplace and moved a large black cat off of one of the chairs,
"Won't you sit down deary, have a cup of tea and let me know what's brought you to call on old Heshe."

Arelon relaxed into the chair with the offered cup of tea and began to tell her about the strange events of the day. Finally he concluded with,
"What do you know about the fey in this area?"

"Oh, I don't know much about the fey I'm afraid. 1 But there are no fey around here, haven't been for at least a century." She said and Arelon sighed as it seemed no one knew much about this.
"Why aren't there any fey here?" He asked.
"Well, I'm not sure really. It was well before my time. If you want answers you'll have to ask someone much older than old Heshe. Maybe Lehrune the Elf knows something of these things. You could go visit him in town."

With apologies for leaving so abruptly, Arelon bid his goodbyes and made his way back towards the town, hoping to catch Lehrune at home. On the way he found Sienna, explained the situation and together they went to the Elf's home.

1. Once again the curse of the bad roll on the knowledge nature rears its ugly head.
​

 

[MichaelK]

Pranks Become Serious (Continued)

Lehrune the Elf, as the people of Rochester knew him, was at home and welcomed Arelon and Sienna inside with warm greetings. He gestured them through into a fine dining room and offered them each a glass of wine.
"Greetings friends, guests are always welcome here."

Arelon and Sienna informed him of all that they had learned and once they were caught up asked why there were no Fey in the area. 1

"The Fey are actually very superstitious. They see these woods as cursed and would never set foot inside willingly. I don't know if you've heard, but I was once a mercenary with an elvish company. Two hundred years ago we were hired by a group of Fey to travel here and help them defeat a foe."

"What do you know of the Fey?" after taking in their shrugs Lehrune continued, "Well, they worship The Wellspring. The source of new life, growth and healing. Most of them do, that is. A group of them turned away from The Wellspring to worship its opposite force, Oblivion. They have dedicated themselves to Death, Decay and the Undead. Some of those who took to worshipping Oblivion lived in the woods here."

"Our company's mission was simple, to seek out and destroy those tainted Fey. But even with them gone, the Fey who serve the Wellspring see these lands as unreclaimable. No Fey who serves the Wellspring would ever willingly live within these woods."

They continued with tales for a while, discussing thoughts about the Grig and debating whether he may serve the Wellspring or Oblivion. Lehrune mentioned a little more about his military service and discussed why he settled down in the town. One of the things he discussed piqued their interest.

"Do you still have that magic ring you mentioned that allows you to see invisible creatures?" Arelon asked.
"No I don't, but unless he's sold it your master should have it. He purchased it from me years ago. I'm retired now and well... even an elf still has to eat."

After an hour or so, they bid farewell and left to speak with Gauwyn to inform him of what they had learned. Lehrune was reluctant to see them go. Such a visit was incredibly short by elvish standards of hospitality, but he was getting used to human customs and watching them bustle away on their busy short lives.

1. I waived the Knowledge Nature roll at this point which is why I included that he had had personally experienced events with the fey here. Mostly because I don't think anyone could have handled another "I'm sorry, I don't know much about the Fey".
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