Lwaxy
Cute but dangerous
Blood at Dralkad Manor
Another session I wasn't present for, but one of the players helped write a journal for it.
This actually happened before the last session IRL, but after the last session in the story timeline.
I need to find a way to synchronize the timelines again.
The players loved both the last scenarios. There were little to none logical problems or motivation issues.
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A few days after they had settled in, Mook started to make use of her oracle abilities, which seemed to get stronger by the day. Being especially good with predicting the near future, she set up small shop – really just a tiny room next to the smithy – to offer her insights for a small, sometimes larger, fee. Edawon and Zaza spent their days helping out delivering messages for the companies here and generally keeping their eyes and ears open for anything interesting.
Kronk stayed hidden in their rooms, save at night sometimes. He practiced his fighting skill and wasn't averse to teach the others some of the basics, like how to keep a better balance or block an attack while unarmed. Krell, however, was getting restless, not having found anything to do as the need for the (suddenly very expanded) selection of spells he could provide was not really there. He had started talking to himself, and not quietly at that, which was highly annoying to everyone else. Zayel had no problems of that kind, he was happy to sit and read one of the many books he had borrowed at the local library. He had not had so much time to read in a long while, and when Edawon and Zaza joined him as they were not overly busy either, he was even happier.
Edawon and Zaza had started writing journals, dating back a few years to make it appear as if they had done so all along and been together all the time. They both had quite some fun with it, and while none would admit it, they were getting attracted to each other on a level not quite bother-sisterly.
One evening Mook came to their quarters with the news that one of the richer people of the city had asked her about an old partly burned down manor in a vineyard close by that was supposedly hunted. He had just wanted to know if that was true, considering he inherited the plot and needed to do something with it so he'd gain more riches – a true follower of his weird faith. Mook, however, had a flash of insight that she needed to check it out.
"So you went out on a limb and said we'd take care of it?" Zayel gasped. "What about asking us first?"
"I rather went out on a limp," Mook joked, but then got quite serious. "And I have to check it out, it is just something I know. I would go alone with the wolf if I had to."
Krell, of course, was all for doing it. They had been through a lot, how could checking out a haunted house be that big of a problem? Zaza, of course, agreed, and so Majek decided to ask the smith a day off and they would go tomorrow, as long as the weather was presenting such a bright, clear, cold sky.
Zaza's diary, 24th of Neth
I will never again say that it is only a haunted house – with those we have had enough dealings in Varisia. No, haunted it was not, just occupied by something vile and something viler. Mainly the world has too many cultists and wannabe cultists and, as it seems, people who dabble with the dangerous things. Majek could not even go along as the smith had too much work for him that day.
We arrived at a garden long not tended, there were overgrown evergreens and other, quite dead in winter, plants. Lots of trails, too, and not all of animals. Someone made screeching noises we supposed were to be meant as scary but we knew right away – mostly thanks to Mook – that this was a ruse. So we ignored the noise and went in through screeching double front doors. Someone had oiled them lately, though, or we would have had a much harder time opening them.
Mook turned around and seemed to look through a statue in the garden, and before we could ask what was wrong, a tiny human woman not much bigger than Mook or me appeared from behind the statue in winter clothes almost covering her up completely. You could only see it was a female because she was rather well stacked, as Cajun would say.
(Note from my son, who GMed this encounter: At this description, one of the players held up his South Park themed character binder and pointed to Kenny "You mean she looks like this?" Upon which the others almost all shouted "Oh my god, they turned Kenny female!" It took a pizza delivery and some vodka mixes to bring back order.)
To us it seemed like she would attack. She had a rapier and what looked like a mithril shirt for protection. I so wanted that shirt. My dear brother says I want too much, but a girl gotta take what I girl can grab.
Anyway, Mook stared at her and made some waving motion with her hand. She didn't even speak, but there seemed to be some silver light around her. But it might have been just the snow and the blinding sun. The woman – or girl, she seemed kinda young, too – suddenly fell to her knees in all the snow and started weeping. Next we know, there is a bunch of illusions around us, none of which could fool a gnome as it seems although I was at first quite taken aback with all the mad laughs emitting around us and a bunch of snow flying right into Krell's face.
Then there was the sound of light steps behind us, but that was no illusion. A moment later, Edawon acts all weird and smiles like a dumbass, and Zayel shouts about him being charmed before throwing some spell at whoever it was. I didn't see much because I had to duck into deep snow – got a lot of it down my coat, too, ewww – to avoid a flaming sphere. There was the woman crying and Krell shouting and someone angrily demanding to know what we had done with Belya. That's how we learned the name of the woman.
Seriously? You are in love with someone you wanna help and them you come thundering down the stairs right into melee to try and save her instead of staying hidden and take out one after the other as long as your love interest is not in obvious danger? What a moron. So, this erratic behavior might have had something to do with Mook's weird, silvery light thing but I am not convinced.
So I got back out of the snow and while I dusted myself of, I see Mook doing it again, silvery light and all, and that guy, too, starts crying. I am sometimes a bit weary of Mook nowadays, I wish I knew, I wish anyone knew what is going on with her.
Mook started something like a sermon, about bad choices in bad life changing situations and all that. I have no idea what was going on with her and those two fur clad lovers, but Krell nodded his head to whatever Mook said. Edawon was still looking dumbfounded, so I rubbed his face with some snow and that snapped him out of it for the most part.
When Mook was done with her preaching, the two birdies got somethings from the ruins and left in a hurry. Mook looked as if she was very happy, and claimed that the two of them was why she had to come here. I wasn't sure if that meant we could not go home, but Krell went through the door and said something about finishing a job we will at least get paid for. I think we all thought that two lovers having taken refuge in the ruins for the winter was all that was there to be, so we went in behind him rather unconcerned, even Mook who supposedly can see so much of the future now.
The house was all moldy and ruined, it was definitely for the better those two wannabe ghosts had left, or they might have gotten sick. We split up to check the place out. I found a chessboard which looks like marble and jade in the foyer and took it with me. Looks valuable enough, but it is also something I'd love to keep as brother dear has just taught me how to play. There were also some sort of half done wicker cages, but I paid them no mind. That was a mistake, but we had already made a mistake in not questioning the lovey-doveys.
I was just done putting the board away when there were terrible shrieks coming from another room. I found out later it was the former study. Zayel had used a knock spell to open it and now there were those two ugly creatures. I don't even know how to describe them. They somewhat looked like disembodied heads, but not like any heads you normally see. They were bigger, blacker had eerie teeth and they had wings like bats spout from the sides.
I later learned that those were some sort of vampires, I forgot the name of them. They are, in fact the heads of their victims, which explained the headless skeletons we later found in the room. They can firghten their intended victims with their cries, which is what they did to most of us. Zayel and Edawon were just staring at the things blankly, and while I could somewhat move, my mind went somewhat blank after I heard them screeching once more. Even Kronk stared as if he had been unprotected in the snow too long. Only Krell and Mook were not affected.
Krell tried with his sword, but hitting flying things is obviusly not his forte. Mook seemed confused at first, but then that glow came over her again, and she seemed... not to be herself anymore. She actually addressed those vampire thingies as lord and lady of the house. As if there was anything remaining of the original people in those undead abominations.
Well, maybe there was. That golden glow – yes, golden this time – coming from Mook surrounded them, and some sort of transformation took place. I couldn't move well enough to see it all, and Mook claimed to have little memory of it later. But they seemed to change back to something more humanoid. I am not sure what was more scary, the things themselves or what Mook, or something through Mook, did to them. Redemption, Kronk would later say. Maybe so. Kronk now calls Mook an oracle of mercy, as she seems to be driven to redeem the unredeemable, without much choice of her own.
When the heads where those of more or less normal humans again, they seemed to stare and wonder for a moment, and then wither away in front of our eyes. I can't describe more because I fainted, at least that's what my brother claims. I only remember outside again, lying in the snow and hearing the noise of battle from somewhere behind me.
As I was told, the leader of a wannabe cult had returned with more cult members and a captive sheriff of a nearby town they were driven out from before. Krell did a good job with his sword while Kronk attacked the followers with his strange, quick moves. I wish I could fight like he can, but I have barely learned yet how to keep my balance on one leg.
When I got up, I saw the bound sheriff and cut him lose. He was in a bad shape, and also very very angry. He killed the cult leader with the rapier of one of the dropped cultists when no one was paying attention. Krell seemed a little annoyed that it was not him who got to kill the guy. Krell can be weird like that at times, I would always be happy not to be the one to have to kill.
Now we are heroes in this town and surrounding area. We were well paid by the owner of the vineyard, but even better that we now get more people to come to Mook, and Edawon and me got some requests to accompany some lumbers into the forest, which we did without incident.
Then today, Mook returned from the Desna temple, which has few followers here. She said a letter had arrived from Bjön, telling us to move on to Falcon's Hollow, as they had to take the long road. We will do so immediately, which is a bit sad as I actually like this place, money greedy humancentric society or not.
Another session I wasn't present for, but one of the players helped write a journal for it.
This actually happened before the last session IRL, but after the last session in the story timeline.
I need to find a way to synchronize the timelines again.
The players loved both the last scenarios. There were little to none logical problems or motivation issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
A few days after they had settled in, Mook started to make use of her oracle abilities, which seemed to get stronger by the day. Being especially good with predicting the near future, she set up small shop – really just a tiny room next to the smithy – to offer her insights for a small, sometimes larger, fee. Edawon and Zaza spent their days helping out delivering messages for the companies here and generally keeping their eyes and ears open for anything interesting.
Kronk stayed hidden in their rooms, save at night sometimes. He practiced his fighting skill and wasn't averse to teach the others some of the basics, like how to keep a better balance or block an attack while unarmed. Krell, however, was getting restless, not having found anything to do as the need for the (suddenly very expanded) selection of spells he could provide was not really there. He had started talking to himself, and not quietly at that, which was highly annoying to everyone else. Zayel had no problems of that kind, he was happy to sit and read one of the many books he had borrowed at the local library. He had not had so much time to read in a long while, and when Edawon and Zaza joined him as they were not overly busy either, he was even happier.
Edawon and Zaza had started writing journals, dating back a few years to make it appear as if they had done so all along and been together all the time. They both had quite some fun with it, and while none would admit it, they were getting attracted to each other on a level not quite bother-sisterly.
One evening Mook came to their quarters with the news that one of the richer people of the city had asked her about an old partly burned down manor in a vineyard close by that was supposedly hunted. He had just wanted to know if that was true, considering he inherited the plot and needed to do something with it so he'd gain more riches – a true follower of his weird faith. Mook, however, had a flash of insight that she needed to check it out.
"So you went out on a limb and said we'd take care of it?" Zayel gasped. "What about asking us first?"
"I rather went out on a limp," Mook joked, but then got quite serious. "And I have to check it out, it is just something I know. I would go alone with the wolf if I had to."
Krell, of course, was all for doing it. They had been through a lot, how could checking out a haunted house be that big of a problem? Zaza, of course, agreed, and so Majek decided to ask the smith a day off and they would go tomorrow, as long as the weather was presenting such a bright, clear, cold sky.
Zaza's diary, 24th of Neth
I will never again say that it is only a haunted house – with those we have had enough dealings in Varisia. No, haunted it was not, just occupied by something vile and something viler. Mainly the world has too many cultists and wannabe cultists and, as it seems, people who dabble with the dangerous things. Majek could not even go along as the smith had too much work for him that day.
We arrived at a garden long not tended, there were overgrown evergreens and other, quite dead in winter, plants. Lots of trails, too, and not all of animals. Someone made screeching noises we supposed were to be meant as scary but we knew right away – mostly thanks to Mook – that this was a ruse. So we ignored the noise and went in through screeching double front doors. Someone had oiled them lately, though, or we would have had a much harder time opening them.
Mook turned around and seemed to look through a statue in the garden, and before we could ask what was wrong, a tiny human woman not much bigger than Mook or me appeared from behind the statue in winter clothes almost covering her up completely. You could only see it was a female because she was rather well stacked, as Cajun would say.
(Note from my son, who GMed this encounter: At this description, one of the players held up his South Park themed character binder and pointed to Kenny "You mean she looks like this?" Upon which the others almost all shouted "Oh my god, they turned Kenny female!" It took a pizza delivery and some vodka mixes to bring back order.)
To us it seemed like she would attack. She had a rapier and what looked like a mithril shirt for protection. I so wanted that shirt. My dear brother says I want too much, but a girl gotta take what I girl can grab.
Anyway, Mook stared at her and made some waving motion with her hand. She didn't even speak, but there seemed to be some silver light around her. But it might have been just the snow and the blinding sun. The woman – or girl, she seemed kinda young, too – suddenly fell to her knees in all the snow and started weeping. Next we know, there is a bunch of illusions around us, none of which could fool a gnome as it seems although I was at first quite taken aback with all the mad laughs emitting around us and a bunch of snow flying right into Krell's face.
Then there was the sound of light steps behind us, but that was no illusion. A moment later, Edawon acts all weird and smiles like a dumbass, and Zayel shouts about him being charmed before throwing some spell at whoever it was. I didn't see much because I had to duck into deep snow – got a lot of it down my coat, too, ewww – to avoid a flaming sphere. There was the woman crying and Krell shouting and someone angrily demanding to know what we had done with Belya. That's how we learned the name of the woman.
Seriously? You are in love with someone you wanna help and them you come thundering down the stairs right into melee to try and save her instead of staying hidden and take out one after the other as long as your love interest is not in obvious danger? What a moron. So, this erratic behavior might have had something to do with Mook's weird, silvery light thing but I am not convinced.
So I got back out of the snow and while I dusted myself of, I see Mook doing it again, silvery light and all, and that guy, too, starts crying. I am sometimes a bit weary of Mook nowadays, I wish I knew, I wish anyone knew what is going on with her.
Mook started something like a sermon, about bad choices in bad life changing situations and all that. I have no idea what was going on with her and those two fur clad lovers, but Krell nodded his head to whatever Mook said. Edawon was still looking dumbfounded, so I rubbed his face with some snow and that snapped him out of it for the most part.
When Mook was done with her preaching, the two birdies got somethings from the ruins and left in a hurry. Mook looked as if she was very happy, and claimed that the two of them was why she had to come here. I wasn't sure if that meant we could not go home, but Krell went through the door and said something about finishing a job we will at least get paid for. I think we all thought that two lovers having taken refuge in the ruins for the winter was all that was there to be, so we went in behind him rather unconcerned, even Mook who supposedly can see so much of the future now.
The house was all moldy and ruined, it was definitely for the better those two wannabe ghosts had left, or they might have gotten sick. We split up to check the place out. I found a chessboard which looks like marble and jade in the foyer and took it with me. Looks valuable enough, but it is also something I'd love to keep as brother dear has just taught me how to play. There were also some sort of half done wicker cages, but I paid them no mind. That was a mistake, but we had already made a mistake in not questioning the lovey-doveys.
I was just done putting the board away when there were terrible shrieks coming from another room. I found out later it was the former study. Zayel had used a knock spell to open it and now there were those two ugly creatures. I don't even know how to describe them. They somewhat looked like disembodied heads, but not like any heads you normally see. They were bigger, blacker had eerie teeth and they had wings like bats spout from the sides.
I later learned that those were some sort of vampires, I forgot the name of them. They are, in fact the heads of their victims, which explained the headless skeletons we later found in the room. They can firghten their intended victims with their cries, which is what they did to most of us. Zayel and Edawon were just staring at the things blankly, and while I could somewhat move, my mind went somewhat blank after I heard them screeching once more. Even Kronk stared as if he had been unprotected in the snow too long. Only Krell and Mook were not affected.
Krell tried with his sword, but hitting flying things is obviusly not his forte. Mook seemed confused at first, but then that glow came over her again, and she seemed... not to be herself anymore. She actually addressed those vampire thingies as lord and lady of the house. As if there was anything remaining of the original people in those undead abominations.
Well, maybe there was. That golden glow – yes, golden this time – coming from Mook surrounded them, and some sort of transformation took place. I couldn't move well enough to see it all, and Mook claimed to have little memory of it later. But they seemed to change back to something more humanoid. I am not sure what was more scary, the things themselves or what Mook, or something through Mook, did to them. Redemption, Kronk would later say. Maybe so. Kronk now calls Mook an oracle of mercy, as she seems to be driven to redeem the unredeemable, without much choice of her own.
When the heads where those of more or less normal humans again, they seemed to stare and wonder for a moment, and then wither away in front of our eyes. I can't describe more because I fainted, at least that's what my brother claims. I only remember outside again, lying in the snow and hearing the noise of battle from somewhere behind me.
As I was told, the leader of a wannabe cult had returned with more cult members and a captive sheriff of a nearby town they were driven out from before. Krell did a good job with his sword while Kronk attacked the followers with his strange, quick moves. I wish I could fight like he can, but I have barely learned yet how to keep my balance on one leg.
When I got up, I saw the bound sheriff and cut him lose. He was in a bad shape, and also very very angry. He killed the cult leader with the rapier of one of the dropped cultists when no one was paying attention. Krell seemed a little annoyed that it was not him who got to kill the guy. Krell can be weird like that at times, I would always be happy not to be the one to have to kill.
Now we are heroes in this town and surrounding area. We were well paid by the owner of the vineyard, but even better that we now get more people to come to Mook, and Edawon and me got some requests to accompany some lumbers into the forest, which we did without incident.
Then today, Mook returned from the Desna temple, which has few followers here. She said a letter had arrived from Bjön, telling us to move on to Falcon's Hollow, as they had to take the long road. We will do so immediately, which is a bit sad as I actually like this place, money greedy humancentric society or not.