Piratecat updated. There can be only one response.
The Company are enjoying a leisurely morning in the late spring. The skies are blue and cloudless, and - if a little cool - the weather is at least dry and calm, with only a light sea breeze.
Three months have gone by since their last adventure. After the battle at the house, they explored the remainder of the caverns under Council Hill and found that - although there had clearly been lots more gnolls there recently, the place was now largely abandoned, with only a small rearguard remaining (which they had slain). They did, however, find a prisoner - a human women named Valkyre, who had been ambushed and kidnapped by the gnolls, and has more or less attached herself to the group.
Since those events, Sirdros has conducted the spring festival, Camiram's relationship with the local tribe of elves has recovered, and Stormstrider has returned from an arduous vision quest with said elves, his body weakened by the ordeal but his faith and insight stronger than ever.
Their relaxed gathering is disturbed by the arrival of a tinker, one Ambrose Tyburn, who storms up to them with an irate look on his face. A wiry, short-statured man who bears a passing resemblance to his own mule, Ambrose is
not happy:
"You don't pay me enough to risk me damn neck! I'll not be goin' back to those blasted, haunted woods, y'hear? I was lucky to escape with m'skin intact!"
Most of the group are nonplussed, wondering who this newcomer is, until Mantreus clears things up:
"He's my honey boy."
This announcement requires some hasty clarification.
It seems Mantreus has begun a side business: he's taking the honey made by the giant bees of the wizard Sionaas, shipping it to the city of Marikest, and selling it there. It's not earning him a lot of money, but he has dreams of it being the first step in an eventual trading empire.
Ambrose, it emerges, is the person who is responsible for carting the honey from Sionaas' tower to the city. However, he was attacked by undead during his latest trip down to the tower, and now refuses to return to "those accursed woods" until the problem is resolved.
It takes all of Mantreus' considerable charisma to persuade his comrades(or at least Ming Li, Stormstrider, Sirdros and Valkyre) to help him look into the matter.
This group thus sets out for the village of Poisson, which is the closest settlement to Sionaas' tower. As they enter the forest to the north of the village, they are on their guard for undead. This proves wise, as a pair of ghouls try to ambush them. Valkyre invokes her strange northern god, however, and the undead flee.
Knowing that the ghouls will return to stalk them again, the group decides to stay where they are and organise themselves into a strong defensive position around the wagon, with Mantreus stop it to provide magical support.
After about ten minutes, the ghouls return, bringing several zombies with them. The reinforced undead charge, quickly swarming Stormstrider and dragging him to the ground. Things look grim for the elf, but then Valkyre lays the clerical smackdown, dusting five of the six zombies with another invocation to Dargrute.
The tide of the battle turns, and the two ghouls are quickly slain, while Stormstrider is restored to consciousness. The last zombie, however, proves highly resilient. Dargrute does not seem willing to contribute any further turning power, while Sirdros has apparently forgotten he can do it. Instead, the group surrounds the creature and batters it with their weapons.
And batters it.
And batters it.
And batters it.
And batters it.
And batters it.
And batters it.
And batters it.
And batters it.
Until it falls over.
Continuing their journey amidst much grumbling about the undead's lack of treasure, the group eventually reaches Poisson. The villagers all appear worn-out. When questioned, they explain that they are kept awake at night by undead creatures prowling the streets and pawing at the doors: one man has already been killed in his home, and another has gone missing. After spending the night in the inn, the adventurers have also experienced these night time prowlers, though they don't bother to do anything as active as getting out of bed and fighting them.
In the morning, the group sets out to follow the tracks left by the nocturnal visitors. This fails miserably, so they instead break into the dead man's house and have a look around. Because asking for a key would have been too much hassle.
They find traces of blood in the house, but nothing else of interest, so instead they return to look at the tracks once more. This time, Stormstrider actually puts some effort into looking for them, and the adventurers are soon trekking through the forest.
After a few hours, it becomes obvious from the winding, circulatory routes of the undead that they are moving randomly, without any real purpose. Ming Li climbs a tree and uses this as a lookout point, to see if there are any landmarks toward which they might head. She spots a plume of chimney smoke from deep in the forest. The group decides to head that way, stopping regularly to let the monk climb another tree and get a new bearing.
Eventually, they reach a small cottage in the woods. Noticing herbs in the garden, Valkyre starts looking through them, but is interrupted when the owner of the house opens her door and asks the adventurers why they are there.
The group explains they are seeking the undead, and the elderly woman expresses her delight at this news, mentioning that she often hears the creatures at night and has to keep her door tightly locked. She invites them in for a late lunch, serving bread and cheese with a malachite-handled knife.
The woman - whose name is Silyna - suggests that the source of the undead might be a "hollow black stump, which gave me a most terrible feeling" deep in the heart of the wood. She offers to take the adventurers there the next day. They try to persuade her to leave immediately, but she refuses. It will take a journey of several hours, she explains, and she has no intent of being out in the forest after dark.
Valkyre seems convinced that Silyna is up to no good, but can't produce any proof, even after surreptitiously casting
detect undead. The group spends an uneventful night in the cottage, and sets out with Silyna in the morning. After a journey of about three hours, they reach the black stump of which the old woman spoke. The stump is set in a depression, the earth around it strewn with dead leaves.
Inspecting the stump reveals it to be hollow, as Silyna had claimed. Valkyre had suggests just burning it, but since she seems a little too fond of fire in general, the others go with a different plan, and affix a rope so they can climb down into the darkness. At the bottom, they find themselves in a damp, mud-walled cave.
It quickly becomes apparent that the cave is occupied, for Sirdros and Stormstrider discovers a pit trap in the floor. Their method of discovering it is foolproof: they fall in.
Close to a dozen small lizards appear from holes in the walls of the pit as the cleric founders in the black, stinking water at the bottom of the pit. They swarm over the two adventurers, biting at their flesh. Fortunately, they are easily slain, and do little harm.
Pulling the two elves from the pit, the group continues onward. The next chamber is empty of traps, but contains the body of a Halfling. The body is dressed in rags and badly rotted, and has been stabbed many times. Looking at the wounds, Sirdros and Valkyre agree that the Halfling was dead before he was stabbed: probably several weeks before.
Searching the body and finding it without treasure, the adventurers complain their way along the next corridor. They reach a fork in the tunnel, but one route has been barricaded off. In the other direction is a blue glow.
"Ooh! A blue glow!" says Mantreus, in case any of his comrades have gone blind.
Valkyre inspects the barricade and notes that it is braced on this side, indicating it is intended to keep something out. She wonders if it might be a dam, but sees no sign of any water seeping through.
Stormstrider seems intimidated by the blue glow, and complains about being the first into every room. Ming Li sighs and replaces him in the front rank, and the group presses on, deciding to leave the barricade for now.
The blue glow emanates from a cavern ahead, which is quite large, and braced with twelve stone pillars.
As the group draws closer, it can be seen that the pillars - each of which is about five feet thick - is scribed with ancient markings of some kinds, though there has obviously been an attempt at vandalism in the more recent past: deep scorings and blood-daubed symbols mar several of the columns.
Though of unworked stone, like the remainder of the complex, the cavern has a sense of 'completeness' to it, as if its naturally occurring walls were exactly what had been intended by the architect.
The blue light, meanwhile, emanates from an indentation in the floor of the cavern, which is lined with silvery runes. These runes give off the glow.
"The runes on the columns are in Sylvan." Stormstrider announces, then reads them aloud:
"
Twelve stone trees;
Roots of the Earth;
Are ropes to Bind;
The Dark Font."
"These are in elven." Sirdros crouched beside the depression, "
I am the Font of Light; Fill me, if you would drink." He pulls out his waterskin and empties it into the font, but nothing happens.
"Maybe it needs fire." Valkyre suggests.
"You think
everything needs fire." Mantreus snorts.
"I mean a torch - if it's the font of
light, that would make sense."
They try this, and it doesn't work, but it gives them the idea of trying a spell of
light. Immediately, several items appear in the depression, which the adventurers greedily scoop up. Feeling a lot better for having finally got some treasure, they head out of the opposite end of the room, wrinkling their noses at the smell of rotting vegetation, which grows stronger in this direction.
Also in that direction is a huge black boar, with blood red tusks. The adventurers stare at this for a while, pondering what to do. Stormstrider wants to kill it, but the others shame him into trying to gain its friendship.
This doesn't work so well, as the boar guts him with its tusks.
A mad-eyed gnome-like creature suddenly appears, spouting poetic doggerel as it and its pet attack the adventurers:
"You think to make a sneak attack? You'll not murder, Bloody Jack!"
"The witch's bidding you won't do; Bloody Jack will be the death of you!"
"Come taste the steel of my knife; Bloody Jack will end your life!"
The fight is difficult. The adventurers' weapons don't seem to hurt the strange gnome very much, and when he flanks Mantreus, he proves more than capable of hurting them: the sorcerer joins the druid on the floor.
Fortunately, there are two clerics on hand with wands of cure light wounds, and between them they manage to keep getting people back in the fight. Sheer weight of numbers eventually ends to the death of the huge black boar. At this, the gnome screams in rage:
"Razoooooooooor!"
As he screams, his body swells and expands, until he looms over all his foes, standing nearly nine feet high.
The battle continues: Ming Li is knocked out of the fight, and brought back. Then it is Valkyre's turn. Charge after charge from the wands is burned in maintaining the battle, until - at last - the self-styled Bloody Jack falls before the Company, whispering his pet's name one last time as he dies.
The adventurers loot Jack's body, and his home. As they inspect the treasure, Ming Li opines that Jack's poems suggest Valkyre might be right about Silyna. Mantreus is aghast,
"I don't want her to be evil! She makes good tea!"
This is the last cavern, and the group now returns to the barricade. They discuss leaving it undisturbed, but Ming Li insists on investigating what lies beyond. This proves to be a trap, first of all, which harms everyone except the monk. People are even less enthusiastic about continuing, at this point, but Ming Li can be forceful when she needs to, and they reluctantly agree to press on.
At the end of the tunnel is a huge, subterranean lake. Mist rises off the water, and the air feels clammy. Sirdros shivers from more than the cold, however:
"This place is unhallowed." He grits his teeth, "Great evil lurks here."
'Great evil' turns out to be a bunch of zombies and skeletons, which emerge from the waters of the lake and attack. The adventurers easily dispatch the skeletons, but Valkyre's attempts to turn the zombies are thwarted by the aura of evil in the cave. Sirdros moves in to start bashing one of the walking corpses with his morning star, but by now the others are fed up with waiting for him to act like a cleric, and yell at him to make with the turning, already.
The elf invokes Pelor, and the zombies go boom.
Searching the edge of the water, the group finds a silver bowl, and a knife with a malachite blade: identical to the one they saw in Silyna's home.
"It doesn't look so good for the tea lady." Mantreus admits, sadly.
They decide to leave this place and confront Silyna. Emerging from the stump, they find her waiting for them. She has brought help: a younger human warrior who bears a family resemblance to the old woman, and a couple of ghouls. She offers the adventurers a chance to leave peacefully, but they don't take it.
The battle starts well, as the ghouls are sent running by Valkyre's invocation to Dargrute. Things get a little more difficult after that, however. Not to mention, seriously weird. Silyna spits out her own tongue, which grows as it flies through the air, wrapping around Sirdros and holding him bound.
"Ha! The joke's on you!" Valkyre opines, "He's covered in pooh!"
Mantreus
magic missiles Silyna, and she returns the favour twice over, the first time with a pair of missiles that glow a strange, unearthly green.
Despite the strange magic the woman wields, however, and the strength of her son, the adventurers emerge victorious from this battle. They gleefully loot the bodies, burn down Silyna's cottage, and return to Camiram to let Ambrose know he can commence honey shipments again.
Only one thing mars their pleasure as they make their way home: the wounds Mantreus suffered from those green magic missiles remain unhealed, and curative magic does not seem to affect them.
The basis for this session was Jonathon McAnulty's "Feast or Famine" but I wasn't satisfied with that adventure's conclusion (Silyna invites the PCs to stay for the night and tries to kill them in their sleep). I added a short dungeon, based on one of the WotC maps of the week, and introduced Bloody Jack: a malevolent fey who had interrupted Silyna's own plans.