Thursday, March 2, 2017

SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY - THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE ERRANT SWINE: PT 1, NOVICE TIER, 2.28.17

THE HEROES:
- Ecna Lubma: dwarf priest of the Honored Dead
- Gruntbelly: dwarf magician
- Kane: human warrior
- Mathias: jotun 

After the last adventure, our heroes find themselves with some downtime. 

Mathias goes about trying to get a suit of mail that will fit him, but his only option appears to be getting a new suit custom made which would take about 3 weeks.

Ecna Lubma spends some of his time working at the Honored Dead Shrine and Brewery, some of his time at the smithy and some of his time working on incantations. 

Gruntbelly pays the wizard Caribdus a visit to try and find out how to go about learning the true nature of magic and is basically told to study as many traditions as possible, avoid focusing too much on the Forbidden and similar traditions, but don’t ignore them, and to go out into the world and experience it. 

Gruntbelly informs Caribdus of the possession of Candace Dreen and the wizard says he will inform her father. 

A friend of Kane’s, who has access to The Guild, manages to get him a pass to enter The Guild’s hall in order to buy a set of lockpicking tools, which are not legally sold in Crossings.  Kane finds a vendor that sells him a basic set of tools and as he gets ready to depart, he meets Ambrose Quick; an aristocrat businessman who recognizes him and has a brief chat with Kane about how he was friends with his parents before they had a falling out.  Quick does not elaborate or detain Kane, but does extend an invitation to return to The Guild.  Kane asks his parents about Quick, which angers his father who refuses to discuss the man, and saddens his mother, who apparently had some kind of relation with him that caused the falling out between Quick and Kane’s father.

A week passes and the heroes find themselves at the Honored Dead sharing a drink when Stohk Ironbrow approaches Ecna and asks him to go to the town of Hamlet to find Theodore; a Halfling that works for the Honored Dead and handles most of the deliveries.  Theodore had last gone to Hamlet 8 days ago and had not yet returned and Ironbrow was concerned that he had run into some trouble.  After some negotiating of compensation for this “favor”, the group manages to get Ironbrow to agree to some exchanges provided they also pick up some pork “shanks” for him while they’re in Hamlet.

Later that day the heroes head out to Hamlet, spending two uneventful days and nights on the road before arriving at the village.  They stop at the local pub where Mathias’ is viewed as an oddity by the owner and patrons.  The owner says that the Halfling did drop off the shipment of brew and took a room at the flophouse across the street.  The group go over to the flophouse and learn that Theodore did stay there, but left the following day to get some pork from Farmer Ham, whose property is 10 miles outside of town at the edge of the Sentinel Wood.  The group also learn that there have been some trouble with beastmen raids in the outlying farms and that Farmer Ham himself had lost one or more pigs and was offering a reward of 1 gold crown for their return. 

The heroes head out to Farmer Ham’s and when they arrive they see the old farmer working on a fence in his yard. They call out to him and he recognizes Kane, who had just been there a couple of weeks prior, and asks if he’s here to “get the girl”.  Kane asks him to clarify and he states that one of the people that Kane and his father had taken to the Sentinel Wood had returned to the farm wounded and was up in the loft of the barn.  They ask about the Theodore but Farmer Ham says he’s not seen the Halfling and has no business with them.  Kane goes to the barn to check on the wounded explorer while the others search around for signs of the Halfling and as they make their way to the barn, some of them spot a slight dark figure in the 2nd floor window of the farmhouse.     

Kane finds Delia in the loft, gravely wounded but alive.  She tells him that she and her companions found the Fey ruins they sought but were attacked by terrible, skinless creatures.  She managed to escape but her companions were taken.  She begs Kane to help her retrieve them.  Kane asks if she was mistreated by Farmer Ham and she said that he and his Halfling found and cared for her, bringing her into the loft.  Kane gets Ecna to administer some healing magic to Delia (who, even in her weakened state makes advances towards him) and tells the others what she told him.  Ecna and Kane join the others after ensuring Delia is stable.

The group decides to distract Ham while Kane and Ecna enter the back of the house to search it for signs of the Halfling.  Mathias and Gruntbelly try to engage the farmer in idle conversation but are forced to restrain him when Kane makes a loud noise in the house, alerting the farmer of the ruse. 

Upstairs in the house, the two search some rooms but come up empty until they hear some chains rattling and follow the clues up to a secret entrance to the attic, within which they find Theodore, chained to the wall and wearing a ridiculous leather outfit surrounded by torture implements.  The Halfling is half mad with fear and reacts poorly to their arrival, but after Ecna administers some physical and mental healing magic, he begins cooperating. 

The two bring the Halfling out and confront Farmer Ham, who breaks down insisting they leave him be and that the Halfling is none of their business.  They bring Ham inside the house and decide to look for the person they saw looking out of the 2nd floor window earlier.  In a locked room they find what appears to be Farmer Ham’s deceased wife’s belongings and her rocking chair by the window.  The chair is rocking and a dark figure is seated in it.  Mathias approaches, but the chair swivels and reveals the hideous visage of the deceased Mrs. Ham, who proceeds to attack while shouting for them to leave her husband be.  All are shaken by the presence of a spirit but push aside their fears and attack the dark figure, but find their weapons to be ineffective against her.  They decide to target her chair and Kane drops an oil lamp on it, causing it to burst into flames which has a painful effect on the spirit of Mrs. Ham.  Mathias follows this up by chopping the chair into splinters with his axe, which results in the spirit bursting apart as well.  Within the room they find a money box with some of Ham’s savings (and probably the halfling’s money).

When the group returns to the living room where they left Theodore to watch Farmer Ham, they find that the Halfling had stabbed the farmer repeatedly and disemboweled him, shoving the entrails into the farmer’s mouth.  Sickened and disturbed at the sight, the group is not sure what exactly to do next…

End of session.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home