Owls & Inns - Dolmenwood Play Reports: Session 4

The group fights for their lives against the Stirge-Owls and those that survive make their way to Mallowheart's Repose.

In the last session, the group left Prigwort and headed towards Fort Vulgar. They had just discovered St. Hollyhock’s shrine when they were set upon by 3 Stirge-Owls from the nearby island.

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Characters

Chalice-of-Duskviolet. Elf Enchanter (Lv1), HP 5/5
Hesper. Breggle Fighter (Lv1) HP 6/8
Sister Molly. Human Nun (Lv1) HP 3/3
Moriah. Human Hunter (Lv1) HP 5/5
Roland. Human Cleric (Lv1) HP 6/6

Day 4, Grimvold 4th, 1089
Weather: Deep freeze & hoarfrost
Wandering Encounter: Yes, 3 Stirge Owls

The creepy children eating Strige-Owl

The group made good use of positioning tactics and was able to defeat the stirge-owls without anyone dying. Roland focused on protecting Sister Molly and was the only reason she survived. He sundered his shield to block one of the owl’s attacks, though another attack got through and almost killed her. Chalice-of-Duskviolet managed to avoid the owl’s attacks by using her seeming glamour to make her clothes appear to be on fire and ran around screaming as if she was being burned alive. Hesper put in work with Peacemaker, Sir Chyde’s old sword that was taken from the knight’s tomb, slaying 2 of the 3 creatures practically by himself.

I don’t think Dolmenwood has rules for sundering shields, but I’ve always liked including that rule in any game that it makes sense for, and it certainly does for this game. Essentially, you can destroy your shield to reduce the damage from an attack 0.

Rolland is Sister Molly’s protector and, in this case, asked if he could take the Parry action (gain a bonus to AC but can’t attack) and apply the AC bonus to Molly. I loved the idea, so I said yes, and then when an attack got through anyway, he asked if he could sunder the shield to protect her. Another easy thing to say yes to.

These owls have a very low chance to hit but get two attacks each and do 1-4 damage, so there was a 50% chance that getting hit would outright kill Molly, who only has 3 HP. I rolled a 2.

GM Tip: Let your players be as creative as possible with their spells. I didn’t even look up what seeming did; the player said it made her clothing appear like anything she wanted, but it was an illusion. She pitched the “if I’m already on fire and dying, they probably won’t attack me” plan, and it was AMAZING!

When the fight ended, they took a few moments to collect themselves and then decided to continue on the road to Fort Vulgar rather than turning back to Prigwort. Given the amount of time they had spent searching for the shrine, they knew they would need to spend a night on the road camping. Sister Molly put her exceptional cooking skills on display, and Chalice-of-Duskviolet raised everyone’s spirits with a lovely folk song…about a young girl who killed her older sister to take her lover. But then the girl’s body was recovered, and the ribs were used to make a harp. The harp is played at the younger sister’s wedding and magically tells the story of her murder.

The player was the one who came up with this song, and the whole group was like What The Fuck. It was epic! This was apparently based on a folk song called Cruel Sister by Pentangle. The player shared the song with us later, and it’s pretty crazy. Worth checking out, and it matches the Dolmenwood vibes perfectly.

Camping in Dolmenwood is a whole thing. I’m not going to get into all the specifics, but Molly and Chalice-of-Duskviolet are taking actions that specifically help with the party’s check to get a good night’s rest.

The group had been through quite a bit in the last few weeks and spent the evening getting to know one another better. The group asked each other about their history and future desires. They learned that Roland wanted to continue to grow in his faith in the one true god and one day become a saint. Sister Molly told everyone that her favorite saint was St Wort the Benignant. When asked what she would have done had the group given Sir Chyde’s ring to the magician to fulfill their contract, Chalice-of-Duskviolet told them she planned to just steal it from them. Moriah and Chalice-of-Duskviolet got into a conversation about Moriah’s hawk, which led to a hilarious back and forth. Chalice-of-Duskviolet wanted to know its name, Moriah said she didn’t know, Chalice-of-Duskviolet wanted to know why she didn’t ask, and Moriah then became convinced that Chalice-of-Duskviolet could enable her to talk to animals.

Finally, Hesper told the group that he set off traveling because it was the one thing that his family wasn’t already doing. He had so many siblings that it was hard not to follow in their footsteps, so he set off to do something different. He hoped that one day, he would be able to return home and share the tales of his travels with his family.

I don’t know where I picked this idea up, but I’ve used it in a few games. Sometimes, when the group is camping in the wilds, I’ll tell each player they can ask another character a question. The character can choose to answer or not, and then they get to ask a question of someone else. I’ve found this is a cool way to let players more naturally grow their character’s background and share it with the group.

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Day 5, Grimvold 5th, 1089
Weather: Freezing Rain
Encounter: No

Thanks to Sister Molly’s cooking and Chalice-of-Duskviolet’s song, everyone in the group was able to get a good night’s rest and wake up mostly recovered. They set back out on the road despite the terrible weather and arrived at the Inn called Mallowheart’s Repose in the late afternoon. The Inn was a converted manor house and had seen much better days. It was situated halfway between Fort Vulgar and Prigwort as a stopping point for merchants and travelers who weren’t interested in spending their nights camped out in the woods.

The Inn was owned by a young man by the name of Sedgewick Ulmer, who seemed stressed beyond belief. When Sister Molly offered to work in the kitchen for free room and board, Sedgewick jumped at the opportunity. It turned out that the Inn was left to him by his late uncle, and the young man had no idea what he was doing. He was desperate for help and promptly asked Sister Molly if she would stay and help him run the Inn. She kindly turned down the offer, but the group said they would keep an eye out for anyone who might be a good fit for a partner.

One of the things I am enjoying about Dolmenwood is the NPC description blocks. They strike an almost perfect balance of usable information without going overboard. They also always include a “Desires” section, this helps flesh out an NPC so much! One of the most important things to know about an NPC is what they want, and Dolmenwood providing it for me saves me so much time.

Our super stressed-out proprietor

As the evening wore on, the Inn became crowded with guests as few were willing to camp on the road with the terrible weather outside. Most of those arriving were downright miserable, and none were interested in swapping stories without a warm meal and a good night’s rest. The group settled in for the night and decided to speak to their fellow travelers in the morning.

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Day 6, Grimvold 6th, 1089
Weather: Freezing Rain
Encounter: Yes (details next session)

I’ve actually been rolling such terrible weather I started having players roll for the weather. It didn’t get any better.

The miserable weather didn’t let overnight, and while a few of the travelers had to be on their way, many of the Inn’s patrons decided to just wait out the freezing rain indoors, where it was warm and dry. This gave the group plenty of opportunities to talk to the travelers who had come from Fort Vulgar and ask what might await them on the road.

They were told again of the eerily beautiful pipe music that almost everyone heard along the road. It was audible over several miles and started just northwest of the Inn. No one seemed to know where it came from though.

Many of the merchants warned them of attacks from Crookhorns (corrupted Breggles) between the Inn and Fort Vulgar. They warned the group to take care should they head that way. Several guards had died, and more than a few suffered injuries while fighting the creatures.

Lastly, they were told of an odd tree known locally as “The Buzzing Tree.” It was a large tree just off the road a few miles before arriving in Fort Vulgar that emanated an insectoid buzzing. The sound came from the thousands of bees that lived in its branches, but the most curious part of the tree was the strange creature that lived beneath the tree. A female fae creature dwelt beneath the roots of the tree and loved to trade with those who visited here. She rarely had anything of true “worth” but often had various odds and ends along with the occasional object of interest.

Before leaving, they stocked up on a few supplies and got a new shield for Roland from the merchants who were happy to sell them goods at inflated prices. Armed with information and fresh supplies, the group headed back into the freezing rain on the road to Fort Vulgar.

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The group is all set to spend the day traveling to their destination. There are a few things they might stop and briefly investigate, but they are pretty focused on getting to their destination. There is almost always a place to spend the night within a day’s journey along the road, but it means the group can’t spend time exploring, and given the weather, they have no interest in spending the night outdoors. I told them that I would keep that in mind and only mention points of interest along the road that they could investigate if it wouldn’t cost them significant time. The freezing rain doesn’t actually make travel any harder, but it does make camping significantly harder. This means that they have plenty of time to get to the next town but that it is a priority for them to do so.

We’ll pick up next time as the group explores a point of interest along the road and finds out about that random encounter that got rolled for them.