Write up of The Mighty Xyrxina and her Entourage go to White Castle, erm not a tower...
Kathryn Karnage
Characters
Dramble
Effi
Brys
Xyrxina Latharas
Lady Cortina Fford-Halewood
Journey (11/4/2020)
Visited the elf village in the quiet wood
There’s a new, large, red and white tent 50-60ft across. Is semi-permanent, being used as stables with spaces for 15-20 horses.
2 huts are still ruined. The other hut is now restored
Lots of Elves & wild flowers everywhere
They’ve no problems with spiders
Village is now called Aldalorna
Met with Somoren (a half-elf of about 110 years old) & introduced to Matra – brother to Somoren. Somoren offered to lend us horses.
2 elves in the stables and a young halfling(f).
Found a suitable horse and called it Buttercup.
Some of the group had some problems with the horses so Brys ended up selecting appropriate horses for Dramble, Xyrxina, & Effi, that they could get on with.
Somoren offered us wine to toast the adventure ahead.
Settlements: Halda and Duhlmora (last stop for the caravan). Quickest way to Duhlmora is via Halda and the Creller pass (stick to the road – it’s dangerous territory and travel by day). The pass is rumoured to be haunted. Creller is a settlement. If you start the pass before noon, you should arrive at the inn at the other end by night.
Xyrxina suggested trading with the elves and Somoren was open to the idea. Will sort out the details on the way home.
Dramble and Brys went to talk to the halfling; Marla is a fisherwoman looking for somewhere to catch fish. She was unaware of the previous spider problem and seemed unnerved by the idea but interested in the valley.
Early afternoon we left Aldalorna. The horses seemed to know the way. There is a path that’s been cleared and heads a little south of the temple of power. The path skirts around the ruined observation tower that’s to the west of the temple of power. The tower was 50-60’ but the top part is missing. The path comes out of the woods and onto rolling countryside, and onto the plains (grasslands) with hills and mountains in the distance. We decided to explore the territory, while heading west towards Halda & the group worked together to draw a map. We headed to the nearest highpoint to have a look out over the area.To the west/north-west is probably a lake. The cliff to the valley leads east-west until it meets the mountains that run north/south-east (foothills in the south-east). Red stripy tents to the south, near the end of the foothills. There’s a tower on top of one of the mountain peaks (assume this is on the pass). Settlement to the east of the mountains (Halda). Odd hut/yurt on the plains and horses roaming.
(I’ve copied in the scribbled map from our sessions, and annotated it. Feel free to pretty it up if you like - Ed)
Aldalorna to Halda would be 1.5 days on foot. We arrived late afternoon/early evening in the shadow of the mountains (sun still up but behind the mountain). About a dozen or so tents - similar to the stables at Aldalorna but slightly smaller. More like yurts - 12-15” across. About 40-50 wood/half-elves here. We set up camp as there didn’t seem to be an inn. Group of half-elves approached us - an armed (sword & spear) older woman (Hilda) and a younger man (Ranulf) and woman (Sigrin). Ranulf and Sigrin are Hilda’s kids. Hilda asked who we were and when we said we were from Aldalorna she tested us by asking if we knew Vatari (a fake name). We said we didn’t but we know Somoren and her brother. She seemed relieved by this and became more friendly; asking us why we are travelling. We said we were wanting to explore the world. Their tribe is known as the plains folk / herdsmen. There’s a track that leads into the hills, from the left of the quite small tower on the hill. We were warned off from exploring the tower. The tower is an unnatural place, with ancient dark magic - Sigrin seemed afraid of it. Doesn’t look like the white stone builder tower - the stone’s dark. There’s a small building at the bottom with the tower on top - not dissimilar to the wizard tower in the valley. We stayed the night in Hilda’s tent and had a very good venison stew with wine. While we were sleeping, Xyrxina hunted a wild pig as a thank you gift for Hilda.
We left early in the morning (after pig breakfast) to allow for time to explore the tower, before going through the pass before noon. The road passes through remains of a gate and some buildings (5-6) that used to form a complex probably an outpost or guard huts. We got a clearer view of the tower, silhouetted against the sky. It’s at the top of a small mountain: 6500/7000’. Square base with a spiked finial at the top of each corner. No windows, lights etc. Smaller buildings around it. We decided to go through the pass and not explore the tower (we’ll do it on the way back.) The road is clearly marked. It’s not always paved but it is cleared. Every 5 mins or so (on horseback) there’s a 15’ dark blue wooden post with religious symbols and a raven on top to mark the path. The gods being invoked are Melora (similar to the signs found in the halfling hut on the island in the lake on the way back from Clippica. Melora is the goddess of nature and wilderness) and the Raven Queen (goddess of natural death. Kazkan the goblin mentioned her and the myth of the black path). There are several forest paths / hunting trails that lead off into the wooded hillsides and some of these lead towards the tower. Dramble and Xyrxina decided to explore the tower (the others in the party were ambivalent). We headed off down a path with the horses and found a ruined house that had a (animated) rotting corpse, who attacked Brys when he got close.
The horses could dash, dodge or disengage.
Brys jumped off his horse and grappled a skeleton, knocking it onto its bum. The skeleton attacked his horse and hurt it. Effi threw an ice dagger & Xyrxina used her longbow to kill the skeleton.
Dramble found another one in a pit.
LCFH used her battle axe to knock the skull off the body of a second skeleton (showing the benefit of years of polo practice.)
Dramble was shot by a skeleton that lurched out of the pit towards him. Brys threw a javelin at the skeleton attacking Dramble and did lots of damage but didn’t kill it. Effi produced fire and set it on fire, killing it.
Xyrxina moved up to another bit of the ruined house but didn’t find any more skeletons.
Dramble explored in the opposite direction but also didn’t find anything new. He retrieved the javelin from the burning corpse using mage hand.
LCFH moved along the wall of the house but didn’t find any more skeletons
Brys got back on his horse.
Effi found an undead creature (zombie) in a pit. She set it on fire but it didn’t do much damage. Xyrxina moved a little bit closer and shot it with her bow. The zombie shambled out of the pit towards the group. This put it in line of sight of Dramble so he zorched it with a fire bolt but it didn’t do much damage other than keeping it on fire. LCFH moved a bit closer and hit it over a v long range with her javelin, killing it.
Effi moved up, retrieved LCFH’s javelin and found a box before noticing another zombie. Xyrxina shot it and hurt it a lot. Dramble moved so he could see it and burnt it. LCFH moved closer and hit it with a javelin. She then noticed 2 more zombies that were a bit closer.
Brys moved up and threw a hand axe that hit the closer one. Effi moved closer and threw fire at the one Brys had attacked, she hit it but didn’t do much damage. Xyrxina shot it and hurt it. The zombies scrambled towards us. Dramble hit the first zombie with flamey scorchy damage before exploring some more. LCFH hit the closest zombie with her javelin before moving closer and finding some cover. The furthest zombie shambled closer. Brys hit the closest zombie but it stayed alive, even though it had an axe sticking out of it. Dramble thought it was too stupid to know it was dead. Brys readied his polearm. Effi threw fire at the closest zombie and did lots of damage, killing it. Xyrxina shot the one that’s furthest away and hurt it a lot, killing it. The remaining zombie moved up within 10’ of Brys but he was ready for it so hit it with his polearm in a furious rage. This did huge amounts of damage. Dramble hit this remaining zombie with a chaos bolt causing lots of acid damage, which killed it.
LCFH explored and found 1 more zombie and 1 more skeleton. She threw a javelin at the skeleton but missed. The zombie had cover from trees. Brys moved up, retrieved his hand axes from the 2 dead zombies and joined LCFH. He threw a hand axe at the skeleton, hitting it easily and giving it a good walloping. Effi threw an ice knife at the skeleton, she hit and it died (again) as the spray of ice crystals and bones went clattering down into the pit. Xyrxina attacked the zombie that had ¾ cover, making it hard to hit. She hit it and was the first to hurt it. Dramble moved closer. LCFH moved so she could see the zombie and hit it with her javelin. The zombie moved closer to LCFH. Brys threw his last hand axe over a huge distance and hit the zombie, slashing it. Again, it had an axe sticking out of its face but, despite this, it got up again and carried on. Effie tried to set it on fire but missed and set a tree on fire instead. Xyrxina moved up next to LCFH and hit the zombie with an arrow that killed it.
Total kills
4 skeletons and 5 zombies.
Loots!
The party retrieved its weapons and Dramble inspected the box that Effi had found but it was locked. In his rage, Brys smashed the padlock off and broke part of the lid.
Inside was:
a threadbare purse with 30GP worth of coins (silver with bits of gold) which was shared out equally
bear fur lined hat - taken by LCFH
rabbit fur gloves - taken by LCFH
a mouldering journal written in common with entries about hunting and seasonal changes, written by a man called Thesserine (probably now one of the skeletons/zombies) - taken by Xyrxina
a black builder bolt taken by Dramble
Next steps
More poking around until we need to get a move on, to get to Creller by dark.
Journey part 2 (13/4/2020)
Journeying
Brys and LCFH tended to Brys’ horse so it was better again. Dramble was looking a little bashed about but everyone else was ok. There were no obvious paths out of this area to the tower but we headed cross-country to the tower. It took an hour or so to get to underneath the tower and we couldn't reach it by nightfall. The tower is square with points at each corner of the rooftop. There’s a stone archway and wall around the base with other buildings inside the wall. We agreed that we’d travel to Creller and stay there for the night and return to investigate the tower very early the next day. We also agreed we’d not tell anyone about the undead or that we plan to return.
It starts getting dark in the mountains about 4:30pm; we arrived in Creller at 5:30, when it was twilight from the shadow of the mountain but the sky was still blue. Creller has 4 houses and an inn. When we approached the inn, we could hear bolts being drawn back before the door opened. A ½ elf woman, called out “What are you doing out there, it’s not safe, bring your horses around.” “You can’t stay out at night here, it’s too dangerous”. We’re helped to put the horses in the stables by a human man (Thomas Finn - barman, later 40s/early 50s) and then once we’re in, the locks and bolts are re-fastened. 2 silver a night, staying in a couple of rooms. ½ elf introduces herself as Mala Jegger. Thomas tells us: “This place has been queer since Heskeron’s day and not been the same since. He worked up in the tower. He started ok as a king but turned bad - started poking around in strange technologies and magical devices. Was about 800 years ago when Sesseran fell. Heskeron betrayed his councillors and murdered them at the top of the mountain. There’s been a curse ever since.” We were warned, “If we have any sense, you’ll stay away from it.”. Apparently Duhlmora won’t have anything to do with Creller and Halda are superstitious so won’t have anything to do with Creller. We had bread, boar sausage and cheese for tea. Duhlmora is about a day’s travel from Creller. Heskeron was searching for eternal life and found it, after a fashion. His spirit lives in the tower; he’s cursed to wander the mountain top and has done so for 1200 years. People in the big house are the va Creller family - they were nobility several hundred years ago and are nominally in charge of the village now but are mostly too busy hunting and drinking. Manfred va Creller’s grandfather mounted an expedition 70/80 years ago and didn’t come back, and his first wife Nerelle died there. People have tried to break the curse but no-one has succeeded and they don’t know that anyone will. V quiet with no animal noises over night.
We got up and out just before dawn. Brys led the way, helped by LCFH. We saw a second ridge with a ruined building that appeared to be a more direct route. We headed off to investigate the building. It was a ruined temple complex with fallen pillars and broken buildings. There are markings and inscriptions. There’s half an archway with an emblem of a crown surmounted by a ship’s wheel on the keystone. On the crown is the letter H. Dramble and LCFH has a look at the markings. It wasn’t really LCFH’s area of knowledge but Dramble worked out that it’s H for Heskeron and Sesseran was a seafaring nation - hence the ship wheel. He didn’t recognise all the markings- they were the same language but a different script but it also had Heskeron’s name.
Bris, Effi and Xyrxina, who had been to the Fox temple, said that this was the same script from the underground chamber. It also had the symbol for the goddess of death (Raven Queen) and a word that was on the coins - Asteri (evil elves). Dramble took some rubbings of the words. [Ed to email them to ppl.]
We all failed perception checks and a Draugr popped up while we weren’t looking. Looked a bit like a zombie but thin and wiry and most of the flesh has gone. It’s hands are long and the fingers are twice as long as human fingers and look sharp - like a moles’ claws.
Dramble used burning hands on it. It was clumsy and took a full hit, being quite badly burnt. Dramble scrambled up onto the wall.
Xyrxina drew her bow and hit it - hurting it a lot.
Effi added to the fire but wasn’t as impressive as Dramble.
Brys threw a javelin at it and hit, also hurting it but not quite killing it.
LCFH hit it with her battle axe, swiping it across the torso, causing bits to spill out all over the place but it didn’t die.
The Draugr tried to claw LCFH but missed.
The ground rumbled and 4 more Draugr appeared as they burrowed through the ground and up to the surface. The first Draugr started disappearing back down the hole it came up from. As it disappeared, Brys and LCFH both hit it solidly and LCFH decapitated it before it went underground.
Draugr 4 attacked LCFH and it’s claws skittered over the chainmail but couldn’t get through. Dramble threw a fierce fireball at Draugr 3’s face (not quite missing) and doing lots of damage.
Xyrxina shot Draugr 3 and did lots of damage but didn’t quite kill it.
Draugr 2 failed to climb the pillar after Xyrxina
Draugr 5 charged towards Brys but didn’t hit.
Effi shot flame at Draugr 3 and missed it so she withdrew.
It was now early afternoon. LCFH hit Draugr 4, only just connecting but hurting it a lot, despite this.
Brys attacked Draugr 4 with an epic swing of his halberd that looked impressive but didn’t hurt it much.
Draugr 3 moved up and tried to climb the pillar to get to Xyrxina. They’re not good at climbing so it kept falling off, quite low down.
Draugr 4 clawed at LCFH but none of it’s grasping and scraping broke through the armour.
Dramble tried to finish off Draugr 3; shooting fire at it and hitting it but it survived despite looking very scorched with bits hanging off.
Xyrxina used hail of thorns so her next attack (if it hit) does more damage. She threw thorns out to tangle and shred. She injured Draugr 2 and Draugr 2 and 3 had to make dex checks that they both failed so they took extra damage. Despite Draugr 2 looking very flayed and ragged, it hung on and wouldn’t die.
Draugr 2 tried to climb up and fell off again so it tried to attack LCFH by charging at her but she stood her ground and it missed.
Draugr 5 attacked Brys and hit him but it was only a scratch.
Effi missed with a flame attack on Draugr 3
LCFH made amighty swipe with her battleaxe and it should have died but it didn’t.
Brys attacked Draugr 4 but missed.
Draugr 3 climbed up to Xyrxina but she dodged it.
Draugr 4 attacked LCFH but she p[arried.
Dramble hit Draugr 4 with a fireball but it refused to die.
Xyrxina shot Draugr 3 but it was too close to get a proper aim and she missed. She left the pillar she’d been standing on. The Draugr attacked her as she left but it missed.
Draugr 2 slammed LCFH but it fell over.
Draugr 5 attacked Brys and missed him.
Effi shot fire at Draugr 3 but it refused to die.
LCFH hit Draugr 4 and hit but it refused to die.
Brys got into a terrible rage and attacked Draugr 4, severing the last piece of sinew holding it together and it collapsed into a pile of dust and bones, dead.
Draugr 3 came off the pillar and flailed at Xyrxina, hurting her badly.
Dramble attacked Draugr 5 as it hadn’t been hurt yet. He burnt it in its face.
Xyrxina shot Draugr 3, hitting and killing it.
Draugr 2 attacked Brys but missed.
Draugr 5 attacked Brys but missed
Effi shot Draugr 2 with fire and singed it.
LCFH slashed at Draugr 5 and did huge amounts of damage.
Brys hit Draugr 2 with an equally huge swing and also did huge amounts of damage and it died.
Dramble shot fire at Draugr 5. Hitting but not killing it.
Xyrxina shot Draugr 5 doing lots of damage and killing it.
We had a good look around and made sure there weren’t any more. While checking this out, we noticed mist coming down the mountain and shrouding the tower.
Total kills
5 Draugr
More journeying
We headed back to the inn at high speed, to rest and recover. We decided to tell them that we cautiously explored to see if we could help (like we had with the spider village).
As we headed back down through the forest, it was about 5pm and it was getting dark from the shadow of the mountain. As we headed down the path, Brys saw a skeleton ahead, just off the path.
Brys threw a javelin at it and hit, but not doing much damage.
The 2nd skeleton, that we hadn’t seen, hit Brys and caused lots of damage. This sent him into a furious rage (he has real anger issues!) We then noticed there were now 3 skeletons.
Skeleton 3 shot and missed Dramble.
Dramble fireballed Skeleton 3 - scoring a spectacular hit but only singing it.
Skeleton 1 moved up to attack Brys. It missed.
Xyrxina moved up and shot Skeleton 3 - a tricky shot through the eye socket but done beautifully with lots of damage.
Effi hit Skeleton 1 with flame doing some damage.
LCFH moved up and missed with a glancing blow using her battleaxe.
Skeleton 4 moved closer and attacked Xyrxina hurting her
Brys smashed skeleton 1 with his polearm and killed it.
Xyrxina spotted a fifth skeleton.
Skeleton 5 moved up closer and Skeleton 3 shot LCFH with an arrow.
Skeleton 2 dashed up to LCFH but didn’t attack
Dramble used his crossbow on Skeleton 5 and shot it in the eye socket causing a minor injury before backing away.
Xyrxina took a healing potion
Effi backed away to cover and shot Skeleton 2 with fire causing lots of damage.
We started to hear wolves howling
LCFH hit Skeleton 2 with her battle axe and killed it.
Skeleton 4 hit Brys but only scratched him.
Brys hit Skeleton 4 in the face with his halberd, hurting it.
Skeleton 5 moved up and used its sword on Effi - a big sweeping slash that really hurt her
Skeleton 3 dashed closer to Xyrxina
Dramble tried to shoot fire at a skeleton but missed.
Xyrxina hit Skeleton 3 doing huge amounts of damage - smashing it into tiny pieces.
Effi hit Skeleton 5 with her staff - smashing huge pieces out of it. Effi then healed LCFH for 4
LCFH hit Skeleton 5 with her battle axe and shattered it into tiny shards
Skeleton 4 missed Brys who hit it with his halberd but the skeleton dodged.
Dramble tried to burn Skeleton 4 and killed it.
As we moved down the path, we saw a spectral figure, glowing with a sickly, malignant, blue-violet glowing the ruins of a hut. It saw us but didn’t immediately move towards us. It was errie and v wrong.
Xyrxina shot it with the longbow and did much less damage than she expected.
Effi moved closer but missed it with her ice knife
LCFH moved closer, hit it with a javelin but did half the damage she expected. She then hit behind a tree for cover.
Brys moved to within 30’ and threw a javelin at it. It did the same damage as LCFH.
The Specter moved closer to Brys and drained his life, causing huge amounts of necrotic damage and causing him to collapse, unconscious but still on his horse. (He failed his con save and his max HPs were halved)
Dramble tried to hit the Specter but missed it. He did a ride by grab of Brys’ reins and pulled his horse away from the Specter.
Xyrxina cast Hail of Thorns and then hit with an arrow doing the most damage so far.
Effi threw an ice knife and hit the Specter, doing piercing and cold damage, killing it
Dramble stabilized Brys while Xyrxina searched for loot. While we were investigating, we saw two more glowing figures off in the distance so we ran for the inn. We got back to the road safely. The 2 Spectres didn’t approach the road.
We got back to the inn safely. As we arrived, Dramble played a triumphant fanfare (only loud enough to be heard if you’re already awake). The door opens and Mala has a cross-bow pointing at us. We go in before we tell her. When Brys comes to, he doesn’t remember much of what happened other than an unearthly chill in his heart and his life drained out of him.
The next day we show the ring to Manfred va Creller. He says it was his wife and we go and lay her to rest. The five party members now have the formal friendship of the va Creller family.
The journey home was uneventful. We returned the horses to Aldalorna, where they can be borrowed again in future, if they ask nicely!
Total Kills
5 Skeletons
1 Spectre
Loots!
Inside the ruined hut, Xyrxina found the remains of a woman's body in rotting half-elven hunter's gear. She has a bow and a knife and 10gp. Xyrxina took the items. She also found a ring, engraved with the letters “NvC” - she thinks that the body was Nerelle, first wife of Manfred va Creller and this was confirmed the next day.
Next steps
We needed more and different people to do the tower so we headed back to the valley.
We haven’t yet explored Duhlmora
Evie
Well anyway, looks like the FIVE of you have COLLECTIVELY figured out who those herdspeople were."