AAR: A Pocket Full of Mumbles

*ARCHIVED* Sub-forum for the original West Marches Discord campaign

Moderator:etherial

Locked
Reyntrannin
Posts:270
Joined:Mon Apr 23, 2018 3:59 pm
AAR: A Pocket Full of Mumbles

Post by Reyntrannin » Thu Aug 23, 2018 10:09 am

AAR: A Pocket Full of Mumbles
Time: 2018-08-22 @ 23:30 GMT (7:30 PM EDT)
GM: ReynTrannin
Circle: 8
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Ceadda: 3 TIPs, 19,000LP, 2,100 Silver
Romari: 3 TIPs, 19,000LP, 2,100 Silver
Thane: 3 TIPs, 19,000LP, 2,100 Silver
Nista: 3 TIPs, 19,000 legend, 2100 silver
Gronk: 3 TIPs, 19,000 legend, 2100 silver

GM Reward:
Blaethynn, 6,000 Legend, 850 sp, 2 TIP

Downtime Actions Available:
Gronk: Forge Weapon Step 9 (Rank 1)
Romari: Item History 21 (Rank 6, x2 Karma)
Romari: Research 32 (Rank 9, x2 Karma)
Nista: Alchemy 11 (Booster Potion, Kelia's Antidote, Keelix' Poultice, Salve of Closure)

Further Information:
James, a Borgin's Rest Guard, has died at the hands of a Horror.
The Children who were corrupted by the Horror outside of Borgin's Rest have been returned, but are unable to wake up after their ordeal.
Last edited by Reyntrannin on Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ChrisDDickey
Posts:1011
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: AAR: A Pocket Full of Mumbles

Post by ChrisDDickey » Thu Aug 23, 2018 4:06 pm

A hue and cry for adventurers was raised in Borgin's Rest. Several families had reported the disappearance of their children, but little headway had been made into the investigation. After a group of children seemed to have returned, but were singing strange songs and playing new games with an almost ritualistic aspect to them, Ceadda, Romari, Gronk, Nista, and I set out to investigate.

After arriving at Borgin's rest, we talked to Lawrence, who directed us to James, a guard. He told us that he had been taking particular interest in some of the refugee orphan kids. About 5 weeks ago several kids (Elasie, Lannette, Rennie & Bram) disappeared for 4 days. When they returned they said they had ran off to be with friends. 5 more kids have disappeared since, apparently leaving of their own volition in the middle of the night, and they have not yet come back. The parents of these kids are very worried.

James took us to where the kids were playing. They were playing a strange game. One would stand upon a large rock, and the others would circle the rock chanting the following verse,
Crimson Lady, safe within your cage,
Who will come to dance upon your stage?
We are here to dance for you again.
Who will fly to purify their sin?
After 5 repetitions, the one in the center would point to somebody, and quick round of "tag" would ensue. Then they would start again. Those with Astral Sight said that something weird was happening on the astral. A pattern was being briefly partially created, but there was no observable lingering effects.
When it was Elasie's turn to next be in the center, she pointed at Gronk and said his name. Gronk was amazed that she even knew his name, but on the other hand he has a pretty famous by now. When we went to talk to Elasie, she said that "the lady" had told her that we would be coming, and that when we did, she should bring us to her. She refused to bring us until after supper.
We attempted a Mystic Pursuit of one of the other missing kids, but the talent failed to uncover anything.

After supper we rather reluctantly let Elasie guide us West. We walked less than an hour, but it was full dark by the time she announced that we were almost there. Gronk was Stealthily Striding when he spotted (almost stumbled into) a very large creature lying in ambush. Eventually several others of us also spotted some more. Thus most of us were not too surprised when 5 behemoths reared up and attacked us. Frankly what surprised me was how good such huge creatures were at hiding! In the confusion, Elasie ran on ahead of us. We hurried after her after the behemoths were swiftly dispatched.

We came upon a bizzare sight. There was a huge silvery-white tree, the lower reaches of which were composed of a laticce-like arrangements of what I presume to be roots. Flanking it were two huge wooden centaurs. A dazzled looking James was being lead forward by the four children (including Elesie). As they approached the tree they became covered in wood. They stuck him to the tree. My philosophy is always to attack the big boss first, in this case it looked like the tree, so I jumped up onto a nice thick branch and attacked the tree. I did fair damage, but it turned out to be a mistake since there were 4 hidden mantis like creatures, one of which jumped up next to me, grabbed me, and stuck me to the tree. The tree very rapidly grew it's bark partially around me, and I could feel branches poking into me drinking my blood. I was much wounded. As it drank my blood, most or all of the damage my spear hand done to it was healed.

One of the Centaur wood creatures tore poor James throat out. Ceadda was also stuck to the tree, but was able to free himself.

Romari cast Rampage, and I was able to rip myself out of the tree, leaving some skin behind. After that we focused upon killing the Mantis like tree guardians so they would stop sticking us to the tree. Nista cast Bone Shatter dropping most of the children and wounding the last mantis, and the fight was just about over. We all focused fire upon the tree and it was destroyed. Nistra quickly cast "Last Chance" upon the three kids and they came back to like, and better yet, the wood that was infusing them dropped off. They did not however awaken.

We did some hacking and digging around the tree, and found one desiccated child corpse. We also discovered that that the mantis creatures seemed to be the remains of the other 4 children. We piled the construct corpses in the lower branches of the tree and lit it on fire. Then carried the unconscious children and the still human looking dead bodies back to borgins rest where they were burned with the customary funeral rituals. The unconscious children still did not wake up so we carried them to Throal and delivered them to the hospital of Garlen.

User avatar
etherial
Posts:964
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 11:04 pm
Location:Berlin, Massachusetts
Contact:

Re: AAR: A Pocket Full of Mumbles

Post by etherial » Sun Aug 26, 2018 1:28 am

From the journal of Gronk Longtusk

3 Raquas, 1424 T.H.
One of the Borgan's Rest guards, a Human Named James, sent word to Throal that many children of the town had been acting strangely lately, disappearing for days, singing eerie songs, etc.

5 Raquas
Having arrived in the town, we asked around for rumors of what was going on. Laurence, for once, hadn't heard of anything. Who or whatever was affecting the children were clearly on to him. We spoke with James, who had adopted an orphan from a nearby Kaer.

We followed the path to a spot in the woods where several children were chanting and playing tag.
Crimson Lady, safe within your cage,
Who will come to dance upon your stage?
We are here to dance for you again.
Who will fly to purify their sin?
After several repetitions of the process, they called out my Name and started chasing me. Not being sure what would happen if I let them touch me, I chose to stay out of reach until they gave up.

Elasie then began leading the party into an ambush, but I clever faded into the night. When the rest were attacked by giant wooden reptiles, I was able to ambush them from the rear. We defeated the creatures but lost track of Elasie.

5 Raquas (continued)
We picked up the trail again and found the children dancing around a fenced-in tree. When they saw us, their skin erupted in bark and they, along with some horrifying wooden centaur things.

Thane leapt up to try and chop down the tree directly, but it had several truly horrifying powers that made it a poor plan. It pinioned him to its bark and absorbed his life force with its tentacular tendrils.

Ceadda faced off against the centaurs and was also attacked by some Black Mantises. Nista and Romari provided support and made sure the children were no threat, but defeating that tree was awful. It continuously fed off of Thane and occasionally Ceadda until I ran out of Karma and could barely keep hitting it.

Nista was able to revive the dead children and while their bark was cast aside, they have remained unconscious. We don't know how to fix them.

PCs:
Ceadda, male Human Warrior
Gronk Longtusk, male Ork Archer/Liberator
Pethrytholilanista, female Elf Nethermancer
Romari Savre, male Elf Wizard/Traveled Scholar
Thane Cawdor, male Troll Sky Raider

NPCs:
James, Borgan's Rest Guard
Several comatose children

User avatar
BattleChad
Posts:422
Joined:Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:43 pm

Re: AAR: A Pocket Full of Mumbles

Post by BattleChad » Mon Aug 27, 2018 1:00 am

The Great Library of Throal thanks Thane and Gronk for their contributions:

Journal Rewards: 950 Legend Points and 525 Silver.

Locked