For the Children

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Hearing alarm and arguing inside the upper floor, Dandon checks his disguise and heads in to the children’s dormitory. There they find an ill young dwarf biy, and a frazzled young human boy trying to take care of him, both scared by all the explosions and clanging they have heard. Will has not convinced them to flee because the ill boy cannot walk. Dandon manages to slow the poison, and promises some help from another party member, so Pud shares what he knows of the other children in the factory. They all agree to wait out the fighting up here.

Heading downstairs with an invisible Cel on his heels, Dandon does not pause in the empty barracks room, but heads straight for the door to the sewing room. There he finds Pincushion, a living doll in charge of the making of doll clothing. Two children are here, and a rug gesticulating and prancing around them. Not willing to part with her charges, she orders all the doll manquins into battle. The rest of the party, looting the workroom, hear the noise and rush to join the fight. Quickly putting down the strange, blinking menaces.

Learning from the children there about a dragon, Cradlefell, and his jack-in-the-box lifestyle, they return to the guardroom, and destroy the nearest box. When nothing happens, they finish looting the sewing room and head down the next hall, ignoring all the doors, as Dandon was told there were no children in this area. And on into the Family Tree room.

Here they see, for the first time, the visages of all three hags, and two other individuals, one an older hag, and one a handsome woman. In his investigations, Zephram accidentally pricks his hand on one of the thorns surrounding the images, and, instantly, they change. Becoming, instead, images of Zephram’s parents and grandparents. Bored with this curiosity, Dandon, Cel, and Tormirr head upstairs to find the kids in the Textile Mill. The now six boggles in the room, try and fail, to put up a fight to protect their charges – the looms, not the kids. Retreating once again through doorways and windows. A few interesting bobbles are found amongst the thread and fabric, while downstairs, Valara is amusing herself by drawing smiles on the stern elf images.

Back on the main floor, and faced with two doors, They choose the unknown one to the left, and find themselves outside again, beyond the garden full of dead scarecrows. Here, another jack-in-the-box sits, and instead of destroying it, they decide to give it a go. It takes two tries before the dragon sticks his head out, but used to kids summoning him, he exits calmly. A discussion ensues about the morality of kidnapping and keeping children away from their families and parents. Once that Cradlefell is wholely unmoved by, as a dragon has a right to a horde, and what does it matter if they are productive while they are here, under his watchful eye? This, inevitably, leads to a dead and dissected dragon, and some quite poisoned adventurers. Though, richer for their bloody experience.

Not ones to sit around while children are in danger, the party heads back inside to press on into the kitchen, where the remaining two children, and four mechanical guards are waiting. Much fire, steel, electricity, and screaming later. The guards are down, and the party in much need of a rest. Though they take a moment to take the rescued children to the bunkhouse, and rescue an old dwarf from a holding cell. In thanks, he carves some steaks from the dragon and begins cooking up a lovely lunch.

The Siege of Loomlurch

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Once the children wake, the planning begins in earnest. Or in Little Oak, actually. Nevermind.

The group discovers Star, the missing displacer beast cub, in Will’s possession, and is convinced they mean him no harm when Tazrin pulls out his favorite mirrored ball to play with. Calling the others together, Will lays out his plan. To have the rest of his gang distract the scarecrows, while the party causes a ruckus at the goblin market, while he slips in the Kitchen door to rescue the kids. Tormirr is not keen on letting the children be in danger by distracting the scarecrows, so suggests they just all go to the Kitchen. Until Will mentions the Redcap patch outside the door. It is decided that the undead crew will go invisibly scout out Loomlurch before any final plans our made and everyone starts heading out.

Dandon and Cel take a quick circle of the fallen tree toy factory, and meet back up with Tormirr. They explain that there are quite a number of redcaps loitering in their garden, and about a dozen scarecrows on the opposite side. Confident in their ability to deal with some simple fae creatures, they set back off to take on the redcaps, suggesting the children sneak up a staircase at the far end of the garden, once the scarecrows are well and truly dealt with.

What followed was the greatest battle ever waged against the Loomlurch forces. Dandon pinned redcaps to the ground while Cel slit their throats. Fire, bolts, and steel rained against scarecrows, whose gaze had no affect on our mighty heroes. A fireball even chased the bridge guards back inside the house. The children roused some snakes when trying to mount the staircase, but even those were dealt with quickly, with only a small amount of harm done to our sneaky sniper who joined the fray.

Once it fell quiet again inside, Zephram, instead of storming the gate, or parlor door, as it were. Decided to just open up a hole in the side of the tree. Meanwhile, Dandon and Cel, still having not met the Getaway Gang, stalked behind them up the stairs to wait outside in case there was trouble.

Through the makeshift doorway, the rest of the party found three frightened children, one of whom ran off to alert the guards. A quick discussion convinced the other two to run off into the woods, just as several mechanical golem guards came through the doors, and several boggles descended from the ceiling. Another firefight was had, and much of the workroom was caught on fire, including one of the boggles, all of whom retreated suffering very little injury, nor causing much.

A pause to listen, revealed nothing about what was going on in other parts of the tree.

Off to Thither

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As the group begins to rest, Valara has a quick conversation with the Lornling she had captured, but it is quite loyal to its fallen mistress, knowing in its heart the she will return. So, Valara lets it go, to join the other hidden friends among the rafters, cracks, and holes of the house. Zephram, instead of sleeping, sets up an Identify spell, to begin to decipher the loot they have found, that Tazrin could not identify on sight.

That night, the group returns to the treasure room, to investigate the giant bronze frog with mysterious innards. Tormirr had stuck his hand in the night before, able to grasp a slimy eel wiggling through mud, but when his hand came out, no eel, nor even mud came with it. Valara volunteered to drink the potion of diminution they had found in a cupboard, and jumped right in after taking a big breath and tying a string around her waist. Unable to see anything beyond the mud surrounding her, she wonders if she might find a sword in this mess. One appears and she grips on to it, as tightly as she can, tugging on her string to be pulled back out. The others do. Now, better understanding this frog, they take turns sticking hands in, looking for various objects, eventually finding a staff, a bag of paper, a hat, an obsidian gorilla, and a spell scroll.

Searching all the rooms they have not yet, they begin placing barrels of mushroom hooch from the distillery all around the cottage, preparing to burn it down. Once they are all clear and heading out across the lake, Killjoy sends a spark into the lowest barrel and, with a loud explosion, it begins to burn from bottom to top.

The hag killers head over to check in on the Bullywugs, greeting their new King, who is, outwardly at least, happy to have the hag gone and his territory be his own. Then over to give sympathies to the old king’s head, and pick up Clapperclaw for the trip to Thither.

He takes them across Hither, past the Tollway, and to Murktown, for a nice stopover before the mists. Valara speaks with a blacksmith, Gert, about shoeing Teef with his shiny magic shoes, and a couple plain ones, seeing as he has six hooves. Zephram has a chat with the local shaman, Wormyz, about the town and the tavernkeeper, Myera, who lets the group rest around her fire. They give her a bit of saved hooch, a tomato, and salt for the stew in exchange.

The next morning finds them all mounted up with rope connecting them to head into the mists as safely as they can. Clapperclaw is a little concerned with one of the hags being dead, but heads gamely on, finding his way though with his sense of home. It takes a bit more time than usual, bringing along so many outsiders, but they make it to Nib’s Cave by dusk.

Picking up a wanted poster for Will of the Feywild on the way into the cave, they behold the wonderous treasure. That Nib is turning into yarn and cloth with his spinning wheel and knitting needles. He tells them of his curse, to make useful things from his ill-gotten goods, while haunted by the spirits of those he wronged. While making them a few items of their own, he answers questions they have about Thither and Granny Nightshade. Leaving with a new bag, robe, blanket, and bandolier, the party heads north for Loomlurch.

Along the way, they see a campfire, and investigate. Finding Pip, a lovely little calimpestri who is dipping his head in butter in preparation for a nice warm bath his goblin friend, Kro’ah is setting up for him. Deciding to wait for this kind friend to return, Cel puts the fear of vampires into him and sends him packing to be a good goblin and help Nib until Clapperclaw comes back to take him home to Murktown. Pip is convinced that in family there is safety, so they take him back to his fairy circle, but he asks Valara to teach him demon insults along the way so he can fit in better. The circle is truly filled with quite rude mushrooms, but Pip returns to his spot, slinging insults with the best of them.

Next, they find large clawed tracks in the ground, and track them east through the woods until the creature took to the air. No real signs of what kind of giant creature it was, but there is murmuring in the group about dragons. Passing by the Wayward Pool, the group grows near their destination, but Little Oak is also walking this way, and so they pause to chat. Cel and Dandon, not wanting to frighten the children who live in his boughs, step aside for a hunt with Tormirr. Zephram, Brother Elian, and Valara step out into the clearing and speak. Little Oak tells them the children are resting, but will wake in just over an hour at dawn, and invites them to rest, as well, as he sets down roots.

Cel and Dandon, off in the woods, begin calling to the wild life around them. Cel seeking out nearby wolves, summons two to his command, but a third blinks in beside him. Dandon, on the other hand, calls out to any nearby deer. After a quick consultation with the Blink Wolf, Cel tells the other two to wait. Then, when the brush begins to rustle, he and the singular wolf set off in a hunt. Sharing the meal, blood and flesh in appropriate measure. Still hungry, Cel calls out to one of the summoned wolves and slakes the remainder of his thirst, while the last wolf runs in terror.

Players Beware

So, we’re off to hunt the second hag. Beelining for her home, because a friendly NPC told them exactly where to go. I don’t like it either, and wasn’t ready, so, I tossed some random encounters in their way. Having trouble figuring out exactly how to make this work without a complete railroad. The next zone is exactly the same – an immediate guide to take you anywhere, and then somehow you’re supposed to not just say take me there, instead of actually exploring the zone? I’m going to move them – because there are Two in the next zone. They will be in different places for the PCs to find, I think.

The next map doesn’t even make sense because it’s mountains and why would you go to any of the places but the bit theatre at the highest peak when the map has the other two on the far edges of the zone. Things will just have to be run into I guess? Or hints left pointing to different things. I really want to do the next zone better, but with a mission driven pair dragging the group along side quests are hard.

Current situation is they are running headlong for a person who is not home. Not an issue for me, just the reality of the situation. They were told that when a hag dies, her sisters have to go to the Palace to bring her back, so that’s where this one is right now. So, it will be interesting to see if they sit and wait for her to come home, or if they go exploring in the meantime. I want them to find the Carnival in this zone, but I can put it in the next one if I need to. If they just free the kids and then sit and wait, I may have the battle in whatever outside zone they haven’t yet destroyed. Hard to set an ambush on a dreadlord of a domain.

Work to do, as always.

Lorna’s Fall

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The dressing dummy did not take kindly to Zephram’s mopping and kept hold of it. Brother Elian came to help, but he got stuck, too. After a bit of pummeling, it let go and stepped back into place. This usually bloodthirsty group let it go, unclear on what had just happened.

Meanwhile, on the stairs, Cel found a wasp nest. Not wanting to deal with a swarm, he wrapped it right up in an old shirt and brought it down to feed to the frogs on the balcony. Quite an amphibian vs. insect battle ensued, but the people decided it was best to leave them to it. Zephram, Killjoy, and Valara check out the big mirror in the corner, but short of ripping out a section of wall, they see no way to remove it and leave it be. Valara tosses a grappling hook down the pool, but getting no reaction, heads upstairs with the rest of the group.

On up to the kitchen, they found Bloody Toes in a fight with some giant birds trying to steal her butchered meats. Dandon closed the door on most of the party after some terrifying shrieks and unhealthy pheromones leaked off the birds. Valara, ever the optimist, tried to make friends with one, but Cel and Dandon quickly brought them low, chasing one out the window to end the tussle. Ushering the rest of the group into the kitchen, they have a quick conversation with a very flustered Bloody Toes, and learn that Bavlorna is upstairs with a guest. Bloody Toes doesn’t know any of her weaknesses, but is grateful that someone is going to do something about her, again.

Looking around, the group takes a cool box from the meat locker, forever dooming it to rot, but without looking inside. Next checking out the distillery, the less dexterous members of the party staying well out of there, they do no set off a catastrophic explosion. Those that went through, head next into the dining room, where friendly Valara meets a Lornling for the first time, giving him a wooden eye she found downstairs, in exchange for a dead fly.

The rest of the group heads out into the hall and around to Lorna’s bedroom, to find the door to let Zephram and Tormirr rejoin the group’s exploration. Cel unlocks and loots the chest in the bedroom, and they search through the rest of the cupboards and Lorna’s things. Discovering four twig blights incapacitated with thirst in overturned pots, sets off quite the excitement. Valara wants to revive them, others want to destroy them, some want to leave them alone, and Killjoy ponders whether they would make good firewood or spell components. He ends up burning them up like the kindling they are, which sets off another discussion about violence.

Cel and Dandon opt out of this quite loud discussion and creep up the stairs to listen in on Bavlorna and her guest, who, at this moment, are remarking on the loud visitors below them. The guest heads out a door and the room fell silent. When the discussion below ends and everyone gathers up, they head through the door and into the study to meet their host.

Bavlorna greets them as graciously as one can greet thieves and murderers who suddenly enter your own personal study, let alone your house, without invitation. Asking what she can do for them, but it quickly becomes clear that bargaining is not on their minds, as they confidently state they will kill her. Tossing a forcecage around as many as she can, Lorna flees out the window on her lilly pad. Calling a couple dozen Lornings to defend her retreat. True to their word, however, they chased her just as quickly and laid her low. But as her brittle body falls to the lake below, it disintegrates, leaving only her belongings behind. It took a while longer to deal with all of her minions, Dandon and Valara finally scaring the majority of them away in the end.

With naught else to do, the victors take the spoils. Looting everything they can find in the lake where she fell and in her home, discovering her main horde in the very next room.

Players Stay Out

Another two-post day, and another, I forgot to include the DM notes day.

I had fun with them facing different types of monsters in this one. Played with a mimic and reskinned some moths – except the moths’ abilities didn’t work on the undead and paladin group members who were the only ones who fought them. Ah well. It was still fun. This still haven’t annoyed the gelatinous cube enough to dislodge him, poor thing is gonna get blown up maybe.

Didn’t even open the cold box to find a still-beating heart inside I don’t believe. And they left half the town unexplored. We’re moving the traders to the next hag town so they can get another shot at that interaction.

Another boss fight ending too quickly. Sigh. I am working on that. Learning how to level them up and such. But I had fun with the Quicklings all attacking so much. Granny might be harder if I read up on the spells today before game. I also fixed a problem with on of my players’ items being too overpowered because I made it up and don’t know what I’m doing. We made it once a round instead of whenever he rolls an attack. So he can’t just ace everything in one round next time.

We almost had our first Powers Check, but it was due to a misunderstanding. So, we backed up, discussed what was going on, what a Powers Check was, and made a different decision. It’s a hard thing to balance when the game is explore, kill, and loot. If I wanted to be a hardass about it, they’d be making powers checks every time they kill something or steal something or attack someone who has not yet attacked them. I don’t want to do that, but picking up sentient creatures and putting them in your pocket for later experimentation seemed like a good opportunity for one.

We got so much loot, the wizard can’t even identify it all in one go. That’s a weird spell anyway. In 2nd, it takes 8 hours, drains your constitution, and can identify one item per caster level. At least the other wizard has finally learned it, too.

Death and Bullywugs

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Oh no! Oh my! Such bloodthirst and carnage! Agdon had his head blown completely off, but his scarf remains firmly stuck to what’s left of his neck! And the others, burnt to a fiery crisp on their own boats! Jingle Jangle only wanted them to know what it feels like to be bullied and robbed, not murdered out of hand. At least they didn’t chase down those that ran and let the ones back at the Stump leave peacefully. They got their happiness back and Jingle Jangle got her truffles back, which she quickly turned into a quiche with the help of Zephram and Brother Elian. Gifts are given in exchange for the food and they head to the Inn for the night.

Just a few miles away, they entered at nightfall. Tsu was very happy for the company and happily shared information and traded for food and drink. Quite a discussion of Science ensued as well. Tazrin felt too tired to entertain them. So, they had a round of Truth or Drink, instead. Sharing stories of their paths and hopes for their futures. Taking to bed, and waking up when the Inn was just past Downfall.

A quick backtrack saw them arriving at the small bullywug village around an unnaturally foggy lake, after a seeing a few visions in the river leading there. Quickly agreeing to meet the King, they head on around the lake. First meeting the Galeb Duhr who shepherds the stepping stones. It took some fast talking by Zephram to smooth things over. On up into the Balloon Factory, where they helped the Duke round up the animated coals and put out the fires they had started.

On down to the Bridge of Kings, where they discovered the history of regicide in the village. And met Clapperclaw bemoaning the theft of his head. Promising to help him recover it in exchange for guidance to Thither, they head on to the Gazebo to meet King Gullop the 19th. He gives them a book to return to Bavlorna on his behalf, offering them use of a Swamp Gas Balloon for its return. Then the party quickly terrifies everyone with their aforementioned bloodthirstiness, this time in regards to the Hag of the lake. The King immediately regrets his offer, but cannot take it back, as the group heads back out again. Thinking ahead, Killjoy returns to the Balloon Factory to help unburn as much as he can so they can get a balloon in good order.

Heading together to the cottage in the center of the lake, they climb up to the trapdoor. This time Cel gets them through with no troubles. Finding a room with a well-fed pool, Valara takes a look and tosses a coin while the others hypothesize about the magic required. Cel and Dandon, bored with talk of magic and science start investigating and unlocking doors all around the room. Finding trinkets and baubles, cloth and taxidermy, they are very dissatisfied, but Zephram trails after them, picking up magical items they did not notice. Out on the balcony, they set off a cacophony of frogs, further alerting Bavlorna and her curious Lornlings to their presence. As Zephram starts mopping one of the dummies, the others head for the stairs up to the next level, headlong on their mission to kill the Hag.

Players Stay Above

Yeah, I know I badly rhymed the last one, but I’m short on time after having to write three DM reflections on top of the above post, and much to do before tonight. 😀 Might come back to fix it, might not.

So, yeah… blew Agdon’s head right off. That fight went so quickly. I really have to find better stat blocks to fight them with. More importantly, I need to get my head around the Hag for tonight. I know she will likely try to run away, but I don’t want them to feel cheated, either. And they can kill her, that’s not a problem, I just want to give them a fight for it. Fight Balance is Never my strong suit.

I’ve had fun playing all the NPCs though, introducing them to my silly places and people. I hope they do explore the rest of the village. They don’t have to be part of the rebellion, but at least the darkling traders and free the prisoner. I really need to dig into the next zone, as well. So much to do. I hope, once they get around to identifying, that they’ll like the random loot I dropped here for them. Might do a few random rolls.

Wish me luck!