SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY: THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE ERRANT SWINE-PT 2, NOVICE LEVEL, 3.8.17

The Heroes:

• Ecna Lubma: Dwarf Priest
• Gruntbelly: Dwarf Magician
• Kane: Human Warrior
• Mathias: Jotun

After the events of the last session and the disturbing ending, the heroes decide to spend the night in Farmer Ham’s house.  Kane moves Delia into the house to watch over her and the rest take turns taking watch, keeping an eye on the catatonic Theodore.  In the early morning hours, on Ecna’s watch, the dwarf hears some pigs squealing furiously over by the barn.  He rouses Mathias and the two go to see what is causing the ruckus.  When they round the corner of the barn they see a pig pen open and several pigs running off into the fields.  In the pen they see one pig laying in the mud, it’s squeals of pain highlighted by ripping sounds caused by the pig’s skin being ripped off its body by the horrific figure kneeling beside it.  Though still dark the figure could be made out to be a humanoid, but completely devoid of skin, it’s musculature glistening in the moonlight and it’s inhumanly long fingers ending in claws dripping with the pig’s blood.  The creature’s wide, lidless eyes jerk up at the arrival of Ecna and Mathias and it drops the pig with a thump, ripping the remaining skin from the body.  Mathias and Ecna move in to attack the creature, but it darts away and makes for a nearby tree.  Before it can get to the tree, Mathias moves up and strikes the creature down. 

Ecna and Gruntbelly, now roused by the noise, go to see what manner of creature was attacking the pig and after studying it determine that it is what legends call a “Bloody Bones”; a mythic fey creature said to have been cursed by the Summer Queen to forever be devoid of skin for displeasing her.  The creatures are said to steal the skins of other creatures to ease their suffering.  The three start to study the tree that it was running towards and discover that it has fey runes masterfully engraved into the bark so as to be nearly invisible.  Between Gruntbelly and Ecna, the dwarves discern the runes to be a form of travel magic.  They move the body of the Bloody Bones closer to the tree trunk and note that the area surrounding the runes begins to shimmer.  Gruntbelly puts his hand in the area and the hand passes through the bark.  He recalls reading lore about how the fey used what are sometimes referred to as “secret roads”, magical paths between two distant points that allowed the fey to travel great distances instantaneously.  Though this may be one of the mythic secret road, the heroes have no idea where it leads.  They determine that the portal seems to react to the fey creature’s proximity, so Mathias cuts off its head as a potential key to using the portal.

They start to return to the house when they notice a reddish glow in the early morning sky towards Hamlet and the faint smell of smoke.  It seems the village is burning.

They go inside the house and find Kane and Delia awake and discussing Delia’s companions who were lost in a fey shrine within the nearby Sentinel Wood.  Delia is insistent upon returning to rescue her friends (and also to plunder the fey riches).  Kane agrees to go with her and though there is some debate about returning Theodore or going to see what’s happening in Hamlet, the group agrees to accompany Delia.  They learn that Delia and her companions had traveled about 16 miles into the woods where they discovered an area of runic standing stones and a large circular stone covering an entrance into a fey shrine.  They entered and were attacked by the “skinless devils” who captured Delia’s companions but she managed to escape, but was pursued by one of the creatures.  The last thing she recalled was tripping and falling towards a runic menhir and then waking up on Farmer Ham’s property where she was found by the farmer and Theodore and taken into the barn.  She had no idea how she got there but the group surmise that she fell through the secret road.

The group goes to the tree and try moving through it in turn and all find themselves in the fey standing stone site, before a large menhir glowing with fey runes.  Delia shows them the entrance to the shrine and they begin descending the dark stone stairs.  Mathias leads the group and finds the bottom to be flooded, which Delia says was not the case when she escaped.   As Mathias tests the water and finds it deep, a huge creature rises up from its depths on the other side of the circular chamber. This horror appeared to be a mass of corpses chained together to form a roughly humanoid giant.  The giant swings a massive length of chain at Mathias, who attacks in return and the rest of the group join in.  It is a difficult fight due to the revulsion the creature creates, it smell of the rotting corpses and the deep water, but they manage to fight it from the stairs and break it’s chains, causing the component corpses to fall apart and go inert in the water. 

The group swims into the dark passage out of this room, but Delia is attacked by a swarm of biting fish.  Mathias drags her away from the fish and the group find a dry ledge in the adjoining circular chamber and escape the fish.  They now have the choice of checking the door in the flooded room or moving further into the shrine.