Finding Violet - Dolmenwood Play Reports: Session 13
The group investigates Violet Harrowmoor's dissapearance trying to figure out who, or what, took her.
In the last session, the group met with Lady Harrowmoor and filled her in on the situation with Roger Burl and the Crookhorns. She, in turn, asked them for help investigating her daughter’s disappearance from Prigwort.
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Day 12 - 14, Grimvold 12th - 14th, 1098
The group woke up the day after returning from Harrowmoor Keep and set about investigating Violet’s disappearance. They knew she had disappeared near the barracks construction site and that there seemed to be supernatural forces at play. With no other real information, they decided that solving this mystery was the only thing they wanted to focus on, so any other plans were put on hold.
This investigation was both challenging and interesting to try and run because there are no mechanical rules for investigation in this system. I also didn't want to make hundreds of NPCs and play things out in real time because that's just not the kind of game my players are looking for. I settled on a middle ground of effectively using a 2d6 roll and a progress clock. The characters would decide loosely what/how they wanted to investigate and then roll 2d6 with any relevant modifiers. Less than a 6 would be a setback, 6-9 would give them 1 “success,” and 10+ would give them 2 “successes”.
After investigating the construction site itself, the group split up its focus. Most of the group decided they wanted to try and approach it from a social perspective. They visited several different taverns, work sites, and shops to speak with the locals about what they might have seen. Roland and Sister Molly decided to utilize the large library at the local church to determine what might have caused the girl to vanish.
Finding information turned out to be harder than the group expected, and they spent 3 full days hunting down leads and investigating old church tomes before they finally believed they had an answer to what took Violet, and where it took her.
She had been kidnapped by a particularly deadly creature known as a Gloam and taken to the Ruined Abby of St Clewyd, a half-day’s journey from Prigwort.
The Gloam was a type of undead that had two different forms. It could appear as a flock of birds, or as a gaunt, disfigured man formed from the feathers, bones, and beaks of the flock. It was known for its ability to charm humanoid children and could transmit a magical disease that killed anyone it wounded in a matter of weeks. Fortunately, a Gloam did not seem to harm the children it kidnapped. They had a twisted parental instinct and would nurture mortal children as protégés and assistants.
To make things even more complicated, the Ruins of St Clewyd had long been the home of monsters, strange unholy phenomena, and the undead. It was common knowledge that the Pluratine Church had attempted to reclaim the ruins several times. Each attempt had failed terribly. Eventually, the Ruins had simply been declared off-limits.
After all their research, the group was genuinely worried about their ability to combat the Gloam and recover Violet. They knew they wanted to try and avoid fighting the creature, but they weren’t sure that would be possible. They decided that the best course of action would be to seek aid from Lady Harrowmoor. They gathered all the information they had and prepared to travel back to Harrowmoor Keep the next morning.
There were a lot of really fun role-play moments in this session, but it was more like snippets of conversations rather than a result of fully playing out every conversation.
GM Tip: While I’m sure plenty of people reading this like actual plays conducted by voice actors and professionals, few of us are that talented. It's okay to just describe what happens rather than try and role role-play out every single sentence. Don’t feel like your game ever has to replicate someone else’s game.
On another note, two of my players had actually run through this scenario in a different game. They already knew what had happened to Violet, where she was, and they already knew a fair bit of information about the Gloam. They did a remarkable job of not letting that influence the game, and I just wanted to call it out. They struck a beautiful balance between staying a bit quieter during some parts of the investigation while still jumping into the RP as it happened.
We’ll pick up next time with the group taking their findings to Lady Harrowmoor and asking for her assistance to recover Violet. Until then, stay curious.