Reign of Winter, session 14, The Shackled Hut: the road to Whitethrone continues

Gifts, wolves like to eat little boys, big game, visions of past atrocities by Baba's minions.

Magical cookies from Sylgja

special gift to Sadobras from Sylgja 

Some quick bullet points:

•  The party headed back on the road after enjoying the hospitalities of Sylgja and Finngarth.

•  The “care package” they were sent off with included some cookies that made everyone’s tummy feel a little “tingly” when they were eaten.

•  Sadobras received a special package from Sylgia…a bit of religious propaganda.

•  On the first night while everyone was prepping the camp Orm, Nady’s son went missing while collecting firewood (Mjoli is her other son, they are 7 y.o. twins).

•  They stumbled upon a pocket of summer on the 3rd day, found the Megalosaurus in the clearing being stalked by worgs (unknown when the elk was first discovered).

•  The group came across an old ruined village, there an old churchyard had a “haunt” that was triggered when entered and the old clergymen turned into huecuvas.  They were telling the party to run along like they were children.  A “ghostly” battle erupted inside the courtyard: children were being killed by trolls and giants in what seemed to be a vision of something that happened 1400 years ago during the great winter war when Baba and her armies swept through the land killing all the ulfen and infidels in it’s path.

Thoughts from Dalomar:

We leave the hospitality of the odd couple of Sylgia and Finngarth and back on the road toward Whitethrone.  We stop for lunch and notice Sylgja had packed us a special treat of cookies.  Can tell they radiate a feint magic.  Trusting the goodness of our previous hosts we enjoy the treats that tingle when consumed.  "Little Bras" finds a special package that Sylgia left just for him.  Some sort of religious quotes as the two had a special connection in their last conversation.  

On the first night out, one of Nadya's twin sons, Orm goes missing while setting up camp.  Can't seem to turn your back on those rascals.  I pick up his trail easily with everyone except for Yoska and Zaas coming along with one new strange addition:  to replace Repent while he recovers from ability damage from the Mindslaver Mold, Noname has summoned a freakishly spawned creature "frogocorn" as his new mount.   A half frog half unicorn- head of a frog with a horn and unicorn hooves it is sure a strange sight.   About a couple hundred feet ahead I see little Orm standing with with a bunch of firewood petrified as he is surrounded by four wolves.  Noname on frogocorn leaps into action being able to navigate the cumbersome snow easier than the rest of us.  Draws the attention of the wolves by charging up and color spraying to mostly no effect except for one wolf.  Yoska decides to rush and join in as well as Zaas calmly states the happenings through message she has up with me all while brewing a potion at the campsite.  The battle ends fairly quickly when we all finally engage the canines with frogocorn absorbing most of the attacks.  Nadya scolds Orm for wondering off so far but is relieved he came out of the ordeal unharmed.  

On the third day of travel we come across a strange area where the weather is nice and warm and the harsh winter has been held back.  No doubt the cause of some rebellious druids showing their efforts in combating the unnatural never ending winter.   We make camp again and I head out to find some game to keep our food supplies full.  Usually Sadrobras and I always head out together, but I look over to see Bras snoozing comfortably after the long day of travel.  No sense bothering him I figure.  Enjoy a brief respite for once not having to slog through snow and let myself venture further out to get a chance of finding something. Couple hundred yards out I see a Megalosaurus- a giant elk out in the clearing grazing!  I crouch low and quietly move up closer to about 60 feet.  Find a tree for cover and take out my longbow along with a special arrow I've been saving just for this kind of target- the animal bane arrow found off the corpse of the giant weasel hunter from awhile back.   Take a few deep breaths and let it fly- the arrow hitting true.  The Elk rears up in pain and charges and I'm face to face with large antlers and hooves.  Take a hoof off the shoulder but come back with several slashes with my blade and bringing the beast down after dodging a couple more of its attacks.  As I start to dress the carcass and chop off one of its leg shanks out of the corner of my eye I see two large Worgs coming out of the bushes straight for me.  Only having seconds to react I hurl the leg towards them and scramble up the tree having no time to pick up my bow laying on the floor.  The Worgs relish in the large meal I provided for them as I yell insults at them along with trying to yell as loud as possible for anyone to hear at the camp.  Too far away I surmise as no one came.  Eventually the wolves had gorged themselves and drag away most of the remaining elk.  Finally come down the tree once it seems safe.  Retrieve my bow and haul back the remains of the head in spite to show the others.  It gave the kids a good story anyway.  Might not have been the best idea as that night  I could hear the Worgs out prowling the perimeter of the camp out in the distance.  They never came near though.  

Further along the cold and snow of winter gradually returns as we leave the mystery sanctuary area.  Come across an old ruined village.  One structure remains mostly standing from what appears to be an old temple of Desna.  Upon approach an old looking clergyman comes out through the front door and waves us away "run along children, run away!".  We ignore his warnings and continue up into the remains of the churchyard where upon a fearful sight materializes in our midst.  Ghostly images of young children and villagers are run down and slain by large giants and trolls from what seems to be a haunt from what happened centuries ago.  Most of us seem caught up in the fright and are surprised when the old clergyman then transforms into an undead creature known as a huecuva.  Two more emerge from the ruin and we are attacked.  Bras riding Typhoon shows off his deadly cavalier skills against the undead foes and we manage to finish them off quickly before much damage.  Though later on I feel my immune system fighting off a disease from the blow sustained from the huecuva.   Frogocorn doesn't fair as well and later succumbs to some ability damage.  After vanquishing the undead the haunt dissipates and we search the ruin.  Find a nice treasure stash hidden in the floor.

Finally come upon Nadya's relatives small village of Elsprin where we can finally get some temporary rest from the last several days of travel.

Session 13 Reign of Winter, The Shackled Hut, Pathfinder gaming group

Treasure found, portal closed, curses abound!  On the road to Whitethrone to free the hut and close more portals!

Statue watching over Nazhena's treasure with a glyphe of warding

Sneaky little bastards!!  Gremlins stole our stuff and spoiled our food!  Curses!

Sylgja

Finngarth the Moldy

Very brief bullet points below.  Please read Zaaz's account for a better detailed account of the session.

•  Magical globe floating in Radosek's quarters:  this is the key to the portals!  What power and knowledge within this device!  Ley lines detailed, magic revealed!  We can shut it down but now we're trapped in Irrisen....

•  The party explored the rest of the tower, found Nazhena's treasure room and avoided the trapped statue.  Some great treasure including a ring of regeneration!  Oops, maybe not.  Dalomar can't seem to get the ring off.

•  Party travels to Hoarwood but starts to feel sick the further they get away from the path they were on.

•  Gremlins in the night ripped the party off!  Food spoiled!!

•  This crazy lady wants us to find her husband...a troll?  This better be worth it!

•  Sylgja and Finngarth:  Wait, that's no troll!

From the Diary of Zaaz Bloodfortune:

Exploring this level of the tower, first we found Radosek’s room with a few odds and ends.  We then went down to the other door on this level.   Dalomar and Sadobras carefully explored, looking for traps and treasure.  There was a statue of the witch Nazhena.   Really?  Why does every bad one suddenly decide at some point they need a larger than life statue of themselves?   I mean there is no way she is that tall with boobs that big, seriously.  What do you mean you like it.. Quiet you.   You are my voices and you should admire me.   Back to the matter at hand…  Soon the two found a curtain behind the statue hiding another door.  Opening it they found another room with another status… really.. another statue?!   How many does she need…. And a bunch of boxes and crates radiating magic.  Showing caution, Yoska and Hatch tried to use mage hand and telekinesis to get some of the items from the room.  What they found was rich enough to encourage us to get the rest.   As I entered the room, the statue let out a blast of energy at me.   I felt my mind going, pain upon pain, forcing itself against my will.   Just when I thought all was lost I felt a touch on my brow just as mother used to and I came back to myself.   Focusing my will I threw off the attack.   Breathing heavily I studied the statue and used the second sight to examine it for power.   None was there any longer so I moved forward and began examining the contents of the boxes.   Soon we had them all open and inspected.   It was a rich haul.   I say that easily, but it was more wealth than I had ever seen gathered in one place.   For a moment my mind played on this.   I could have all of it.   Siding with the witches of the north I could kill Nazhena and claim this for myself.   Surely this was just a taste of the wealth and power I could aspire to?    Then I thought of that hand on my brow, the dire warning the witches had brought me, the face of Nadya so sad sometimes when I knew she thought of the horrors done to her little girl and I knew.   Down to my core I knew this must end.   This was the wealth of blood and death and we would bend it to the death and destruction of those doing these evils. 

Bars of silver, items of magical power, and much more.   We had the witch’s treasury.   To top it off was an item of special distinction, a ring of regeneration.  Thinking of it and the best use for us, I recommended it be taken by Yoska to help keep him safe, but Dalomar also wanted it.   Pulling a coin from the mass we had found, then left the decision to chance and in the end it was to go to Dalomar.   Such a treasure was worth more gold than can be imagined.   Other treasures were found as well.   Books of history, creatures of the north, and much more.   Knowledge is a valuable coin indeed.   All we found we loaded into a bag of holding and slung it onto my back.  Heady I was with what I carried, but the voices reminded me of work left undone…

Returning to the room we first appeared I put down all the wealth, all the weapons, all thoughts and distractions.   This globe floating before me was the key to one of the reasons why we were here in the north.   The portal to the south that allowed the winter to escape its bounds was before me and I must know how to end it.   Intent upon it Grr and I sat on the floor together and discussed what we saw.   I called to the voices and asked their advise, some of it was useful and others as usual fluff.    A map it was of portals and power and lay lines become tangled.   A dirty magic, a magic of tangle.   Why did this call to me?   Something on this thought tickled me.   Conjuration.  This was a portal and thus tightly tangled with Conjuration magic and thus conjuring was the way to break it.   My thoughts coalesced and I exclaimed, yes that’s the way!   Pulling energy I brought forth my own tangle directly into the globe of power.   The web spell I cast overlay its own pattern of energy onto the lines of the ball, bringing a bit of weight to one side of the symmetry required in a conjuration like the winter witches had made.    Weight to break the crucial balance of energies.   The spin of the globe got decidedly wobbly and then with a burst broke apart and dissipated.  I could feel a trickle of the energy bleed into all of us there and stick like the world rewarding our efforts.

The rest was mostly cleanup.   We looted the remaining bodies and burned them.   I took my time to destroy those damn statues.   We hadn’t killed the witch as she just wasn’t there, but we could still spit in her face a bit.   One last task awaited us before we could head for Whitethrone.   During the battle Radosek had managed to cast a blindness spell on Noname.  Poor soul was also afflicted with the feast of ashes or something very similar.   No matter how much he ate, more he would hunger.   We needed to get him healed and though not in our preferred direction the clear choice was to go to Hoarwood.   First to Waldsby to pick up Nadya’s two remaining children, then on to Hoarwood we went.   Farther south we went, away from Whitethrone and the voices mumbling got louder.   Something they were warning me, but what I couldn’t tell.   It is so difficult when they mumble.   We were finally almost to Hoarwood when I realized I must have a sickness or something as I felt weak.   Sure I would heal soon I made a point to take it easy after travel and read as much in the new books as I could.  Surely this would help.   Though it improved my mind, and that of all the party who read the books, it did nothing for my sickness.   In Hoarwood it became clear it was more than just me, it was all of us with the same.   Consulting a priest we learned we were under no curse or disease he knew, but soon we understood.   This weakness was becoming stronger the father from the path of our mission.   The black rider gifted us, but he also lay a terrible burden on our souls.   Finish his mission or we would die from the curse of obligation.   Quickly we arranged to have Noname’s blindness removed and by the next day we resumed our task, north we went.  

The day started as the one before, dawn and food and the journey, but by the end of the day we would know our folly.   As we made our way north later in the day we saw birds in the distance.   More of those accursed crows and they were headed for us.  Gathering together and preparing ourselves we awaited the birds.   As they got close, poof, Yoska hid us in an obscuring mist.   There we continued to prepare and plan.   I made myself invisible and stepped out.   Two of the bird swarms there were with many birds.   As the mist dissipated, I called upon the powers of summer and alit my burning gaze upon one swarm.   Fire shot out and blasted into them, damaging many and putting others on fire.   My companions also fought and smashed their way through the swarm and soon they were flying away, feathers smoldering.  I checked my companions for wounds and saw that Dalomars were serious.   I waited a few moments and looked again, still serious.   We had just given him a powerful ring of regeneration, any wounds he had should be closing quickly.   For the rink will even regenerate missing limbs and organs.   However, it was soon clear things were not as they should be.   Dalomar not only couldn’t take off the ring, but wounds that would have been minor on him a few days before seemed to have done more than expected.   The ring was cursed and could not be easily removed.   To his credit, Dalomar was quite stoic about this turn of events.   His confidence in us to get him safely where we needed to go and to help him get the curse removed was touching.   Hold on Dalomar I thought.   If we don’t find a way soon, I know my power is growing and I will remove it myself soon enough.

Onward we went.   Much of the travel uneventful, but one event stands out.   We setup camp and put our traps.  As I awoke for my watch I realized many of our smaller items were done and worse, our food all spoiled.  A small slit on the side of the tent showed where something tiny had entered while we slept.  Thinking on the books about fay I had read I realized it must have been a type of gremlin.  We made a cursory check, but it became painfully obvious that we would never find them and that trying was likely proving them good entertainment.   My cold iron spear, my main weapon was gone, but now that we had found much gold and silver, perhaps it was time for an upgrade.

Farther we went and soon had another interesting encounter.   As we approached a small hut in the woods we were spotted by a beautiful read headed woman named Sylgja.   She came up to us and begged us to free her husband Finngarth from the Moss Troll who had captured him or avenge him if he was dead.  Agreeing to take a look we went to the area in question and to the cave she had spotted near where her husband was taken.   Casting invisibility on Repent, I also gave him a potion of invisibility to get Finngarth out of the cave if possible.   In he went and Noname quickly related what was seen.   Not a moss troll, but Finngarth covered in some vegetation making a nesting place.  Noname dscribed it to me and I realized what it was, Mindslaver Mold.   A mold that takes control of sentient beings and makes them its slave.  Fighting the creature was tough as it was bound to Finngarth and often would hide behind his head making it more likely for us to damage his host than the mold.   Repent slapped at Finngarth with a sap to try to put him unconscious without killing him and Sadobras hit with a few sling stones.   Soon all of us joined in the fight and managed to free him from control of the mold.   Healing him and taking him back to his cabin we were received rapturously by Sylgja who was overjoyed to see her husband again.   Hugging us all she also passed some kind of luck to Sadobras.  Mentioning Dalomars curse, Sylgja in gratitude to us also tried to use a scroll of remove curse she had, but it was not powerful enough to remove the ring.  A fine woman I thought as we entered into the hut, but then almost froze in my steps as I saw her tail.   Certainly not human with that, but what was she.   Taking a closer look it became clearer.   Though well disguised, I could see her wooden skin and empty hollow in her back.   My studies had mentioned the Huldra to me, but certainly not said they were of the bad kind.   Thinking upon it I realized exactly why a human and Huldra were living alone in the woods far from society.   People are often cruel to those mixing the races.   Not all of us know that love knows no bounds.  Later as we washed dishes together and I could get her alone I reminded her to be careful with her tail.   Quickly I could see she was worried for her secret, but I reassured her there was no need for any other to know.   Relief flooded her face and I felt sorrow for a world that would make her feel such a secret necessary.  

In the morning the happy couple made us breakfast and saw us off- packed well and stocked with supplies for the road.   Onward we journey now to a village on the edge of Whitethrone.   There Nadya knows of person who may be able to get us into the city itself without attention we care not for.   What will be find there?   Is it really true the legendary hut of Baba Yaga awaits within?   Soon we will know… 

Session 12 Reign of Winter, Pathfinder gaming group, Pale tower clean-up

Pale Tower overrun by the heroes!  Radosak and Jairess defeated.

From the Diary of Zaaz Bloodfortune

…. The fight continued.   Just as I was starting to despair, Hatch blasted the bitch out the window and I thought at the time, out of this life.   Her body floated down to the courtyard and before we could be sure of the deal was swept up by a great bloody ice troll.   We took a few parting shots and killed off a few of the guards that came out with the beast, but the troll and bitch got away.   Taking stock of our party and strength, I begged my companions to pause the assault.   Inside I was filled with an emptiness of power.   The voices tell me facing the Witch and her apprentice will take all we have, to fight now would be to give them the advantage.  

We did our best to block the portal point and holed up in one of the rooms at this level.   Lucky for us Dalomar made a good search of the rooms and found a wee horde hidden in a dollhouse.   So after a few hours, well fed, well rested, and a bit richer we unblocked the portal and went down again to the level below.   I say that casually, we in fact we did dangle Hatch out the window like a minnow waiting a striker so he could peek at the level below to check if the coast was clear.   The level seemed empty so the only real choice was to go back down and clear the level below.   Dalomar and Sadobras went out the window on lines.   The voices in my head became a cacophony, all at once united in their speech and chanted together to me, getting louder and louder as they went, jump, jump, jump, jump!  Out the window I went and to my amazement my hair spread around me, slowed me, and I fell as light as a feather!   Oh thank you ones beyond, for it is almost like flying as a bird.

Once in the courtyard we discovered the door in to the first level was not locked.   In fact, it was not closed and the Ice Troll from before announced our arrival.   Soon the rest of my companions came down as we battled the beast in at the door.   Both of the bitches we found before in the Raven room were both back on their feet and fighting us along with a guard.   Lesson to be learned is leave no evil behind, me thinks.   Sly Noname realized that while all of us were fighting up front, the back might not be and sent repent down the portal to attack their rear.  There he found a fountain and Water elemental and eliminated them as well as did a bit of scouting.   Back to our battle.   We fought much better together.   I actually stayed back in cover where I could throw curse after curse at our enemies to sap their will to fight and cloud their abilities.   Yoska, Dalomar, and Sadobras fought to great effect destroying our enemies and soon the place was quiet.   Even Nadya, who had been struggling to do any damage in combat was somewhat successful.  Searching the bodies we found what we had hoped, the key to the upper level. 

Ready to finish the tower off we went up again to the second level and then chose an order to the top.   Up we went one at a time, starting with repent, then myself, and the rest did follow.   In the room at the top we were surprised to find Radosek, the witches apprentice, and his goat.    Floating above it all was a globe of magical power, spinning and pulsing, covered with lines.   Radosek immediately cast into a cauldron he had there and quickly out popped a large group of ice elementals.   Did he really have that much power to summon that many of them, or was there something special about that cauldron?  Repent immediately moved forward to attack the goat and I moved aside in the room to make room for the next to come up.   As I was repositioning in the room I heard a banging from a side door.   The voice of the one inside demanding to be let out was familiar.   I asked who it was and Nadya’s voice asked, “Zaaz?!”   This made no sense, how could Nadya be in there when she was downstairs awaiting her turn to come through the portal?   Before I could find the answer though, a lighting arc hit me hard enough to knock me out.   Why does this always seem to happen to me?!  After a few moments I was woken back up through healing and I took stock of the room.   All of our party was up and there were two Nadyas.  Radosek and his ice elemtentals still battled as well.   Having faith the Nadya from the room was the true Nadya I told her to talk my crossbow and fight.   Quickly she shot the fake Nadya with the crossbow and the two went back and forth.  The rest of the party in confusion fought as well.  Noname dazed the real Nadya, then the fake one attacked Yoska and make it abundantly clear which was which.  Soon through the valiant actions of the party, Radosek, his elementals, and the fake Nadya were killed.   The fake Nadya’s body went through a terrible transformation as it died, first from one form, then to another.  Even at one point it became Lady Argentia Malassene, hinting at some deep plot.   The reality had became painfully clear, this was a vile doppleganger.   The true Nadya was healed and told us her story that she had been taken from town when we went to get healing for our eyes before and had been held captive here in the tower.