The Death of a Friend - Dolmenwood Play Reports: Session 5

The group departs Mallowheart's Repose and finds themselves in search of the source of inhumanly beautiful pipe music from the North.

In the last session, the group spent the evening at Mallowheart’s Repose, an Inn halfway between Prigwort and Fort Vulgar. They had gotten a good night's rest and were ready to return to the road.

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Characters

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

Day 6, Grimvold 6th, 1089
Weather: Freezing Rain
Wandering Encounter: Yes, Drune - Audrune negotiating with a Black Bile Wyrm

Holy crap is that a loaded random encounter that got rolled up. There is no way I could drop this on the party because either of those creatures could easily kill everyone. Plus, this feels like an excellent chance to show the players that things are happening in the world around them, even when they don't do anything. An Audrune is one of the strongest drune there is, there are only 13 of them, and they all have names and a specific location that they guard. Bile Wyrms are Dolmenwood’s version of a dragon, though not quite as powerful. This is basically like rolling a random encounter in D&D and getting a Red Dragon negotiating with the Black Dragon. I would be missing a huge opportunity if I didn’t expand on this. So I spent some time thinking about it as well as looking into the Audrune that might be nearby and came up with the following scenario:

Like, I don’t want to fight that guy!

The Audrune Hermanach, guardian of the Hadrwyl Nodal stone, is negotiating with a Black Bile Wyrm a few dozen yards off the road. Hermanach is trying to convince the wyrm to assault the Crookhorn garrison to the North. They have been threatening the Nodal stone he guards, and he is worried that they will eventually claim it in the name of the Nag Lord. The Black Bile Wyrm would take some convincing, but it is possible. Other caravans heading north along the road have encountered this and either hurried past or turned around and gone back to the Inn. No one is sure what will happen when the two stop talking, and they certainly don’t want to be around to find out. I also decided to roll to see if the Wyrm would agree to attack the encampment because it could have serious ramifications for some of the events happening in the woods. I decided on a 3:6 chance, low means it accepts, and rolled a 5. So unless the players get involved, all that will happen is talking.

Shortly after leaving Mallowheart’s Repose, the group crossed the Shaffer bridge over the River Shiver and began to hear the haunting pipe music they had heard so much about. It drifted down on the wind from the northeast and sounded inhumanly beautiful. Chalice-of-Duskviolet recognized the music as fae, or at least music inspired by faerie. The group decided to ignore the music for now. It seemed to be consistent, and they decided they could always come back if they wanted to investigate later.

Not far from the road, the group passed a large low hill they had been told was called Prigmarinn Hill. A stairway of protruding, rough-hewn slate blocks ascended from the road to the top of the hill, and at the top stood a 20’ tall column of white stone. The group had heard a little of this stone pillar during their travels. It was somewhat of a tourist attraction, and travelers often carved their name into the column as an odd traveling ritual. Given its proximity to the road, Moriah suggested that they check the pillar to see if Gherigew (the bard they were heading to Fort Vulgar to find) had carved his name into the stone. They certainly had the time, and it would at least provide an opportunity to see if he had come that way.

As they approached the column, they felt the wind pick up and realized that it was coming from the direction of the white pillar. They circled the hill and found that no matter what direction they approached, the wind always blew away from the pillar and had the peculiar effect of silencing any sounds coming from beyond the hill. When they got close enough to the pillar to begin reading names, they realized that it could take hours. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of names carved into the pillar. Interestingly, they only found names. No epitaphs, no “I was here” jokes, just names, though some of them had been defaced. As the group pondered whether this would be worth their time, Sister Molly walked up to the column, examined it for a few seconds, and pointed directly at Gherigew’s name carved into the column. The group was stunned.

Chalice-of-Duskviolet still wanted to see if the pillar was magical, and Roland wanted to see if it was holy. While the two of them completed their rituals, the rest of the group perused the pillar for other interesting names and examined the forest around the hill. While scanning the forest, Moriah spotted what looked to be a small gap in the trees a few miles to the northeast, along with a very faint wisp of smoke from the clearing. While they could no longer hear the pipe music, that was the direction the music was originating from, so she pointed it out to the rest of the group.

Chalice-of-Duskviolet completed her ritual and learned that the pillar was deeply magical. It was far more than just an item; it was an ancient relic. Roland was shocked to learn that the pillar was not holy but did contain traces of divine power.

I thought looking for Gherigew’s name was pretty brilliant on the part of the player, but there were a lot of names here. I asked the group how long they wanted to spend searching, and they settled on 1 hour. This would give Chalice-of-Duskviolet time to safely cast Detect Magic on the column and determine if it was magical. I asked everyone to roll a d20 as a kind of luck check and told them that 15 or higher would be enough to tell if his name was on the column. Molly rolled a natural 20, and Hesper rolled super high as well. I wanted to give them something more than just finding Gherrigew’s name given such high rolls, so I told them at any point in the future, they could ask if someone’s name was on the pillar. This might never get used, but sometimes, it’s the little stuff that leads to the wildest outcomes.

With the pillar fully investigated, they made their way back to the road when they spotted a large caravan heading back towards the Inn. They had seen it depart just an hour earlier, so they inquired what had made them return. The caravan owner told the group that a mile or so down the road, a Drune was speaking with a Black Wyrm not far from the road. Given that the Wyrm was conversing with the Drune, it could only mean that he was powerful. The caravan had no interest in being anywhere near them when they finished talking, so they turned their cart around and returned to the Inn.

Hearing this information, the group decided to postpone their Journey to Fort Vulgar as they also had no desire to encounter either of the two powerful figures along the road. Instead, they opted to travel north into the woods, pursuing the pipe music they had been hearing since this morning.

After a few hours of searching, they followed the music to the ruins of an old fort and discovered several drunk crookhorns inside the courtyard. Moriah had also seen movement in one of the crumbling parapets and split off from the group to see if she could get a better vantage point on whoever was in the tower. The rest of the group managed to sneak up to the entrance on the outer wall and prepared to engage the crookhorns in combat when Chalice-of-Duskviolet opted for a more creative approach.

The ruined keep and the different approach paths of the group.

Croookhorns are breggles that have been corrupted by chaos. They are one of a handful of creatures that are almost always treated as enemies. While it’s possible to talk to them, it would be far more common to attack them on sight. This is especially true for Hesper, as all breggles despise crookhorns.

She stepped into the entrance to the courtyard and told them that she was a powerful elven enchantress and that she had come here to find her champion. She told the four drunk crookhorns that it was certainly one of them, though she was unsure of which one. She asked that they prove themselves to her so that she could find her champion. As she spoke, they moved to close in around her, but before they could “secure” her, her faerie glamour took hold. It twisted the mind of the crookhorn who appeared to be the leader, or at the very least the one that could understand woldish (the Dolmenwood version of common), and he declared himself her champion. He lunged at a nearby crookhorn who dodged his blow and promptly delivered a counterattack that knocked Chalice-of-Duskviolet’s new “champion” out cold. The group took this opportunity to attack.

Crookhorns! Like Tolkien’s Orcs, they’re pretty much always meant to be the bad guys.

As they raced into the courtyard, Roland cast Hold Person on the group of crookhorns and paralyzed two of the remaining three. The group set upon the remaining enemy when they came under fire from another crookhorn in the northwest tower. They quickly slew the non-paralyzed crookhorn and launched attacks at the one in the tower. It seemed that Moriah was firing on him from outside the walls of the keep as he staggered under the impact of an arrow. In response, the crookhorn loosed an arrow at the hunter outside the walls. The rest of the group heard a sharp cry of pain and the sudden screeching of Moriah’s hawk.

With little other resistance, the group slew the crookhorn in the tower and finished off all but one of the crookhorns in the courtyard. They bound and gagged him, planning on questioning him later. For now, though, they needed to check on Moriah.

That hold person was amazing! Roland has been holding onto it since session 1 when he and Molly prayed at the shrine to St. Waylain in Prigwort. In Dolmenwood, praying at a shrine grants you the ability to cast a spell specific to that shrine one time without needing to prepare it. You’re able to come back and keep praying for that spell as long as it is a level you can cast, in this case, it wasn’t. Hold Person is a level 2 spell, and technically, Roland can’t cast spells yet.

Rushing from the courtyard, the group found Moriah’s body outside the walls of the keep. The crookhorn arrow had pierced her throat, and she lay dead in the snow. While they hadn’t known her for more than a few days, they were sad to lose an ally, but they knew they needed to press on. Roland began to prepare burial rights while Sister Molly started to dig a grave when suddenly Chalice-of-Duskviolet asked what they were doing. She told them rather matter-of-factly that she would just bring Moriah back to life. Roland and Molly were more than a little skeptical but didn’t see any harm in letting her try.

Chalice-of-Duskviolet placed her hand on Moriah’s head and silently called to Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk, whose spectral form suddenly appeared before the group in a flurry of snow. Chalice-of-Duskviolet expressed her desire to see Moriah brought back to life, and Snowfall-at-Dusk was shocked. She asked Chalice-of-Duskviolet if she was sure that she wanted to use her wish on a mortal.

Snowfall-at-Dusk: You know, I only get one wish in a lifetime, and you want to use it on….her? Really? Are you…sure?

Chalice-of-Duskviolet: Yes, I’ve grown somewhat fond of her over the time we’ve spent together. And if there’s anything mortals get right, it’s small and insignificant kindness in the face of a bleak and pointless existence.

Snowfall-at-Dusk: Well, ok then.

With that, Snowfall-at-Dusk sang a song so filled with magic that it altered the fabric of reality. The group watched as Moriah became shrouded in solid ice for a few moments before the ice melted, and Moriah gasped for air. As Snowfall-at-Dusk’s form vanished, Moriah sat up, and the group saw that her hair was now the color of snow and her eyes had lost their pupils and cilia and were the color of a frozen lake beneath a cloudless sky.

Before the rest of the group could fully process what just happened, Chalice-of-Duskviolet (in an overly excited tone) asked Moriah, “Well then, tell me all about it! How was dying?

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I could not have asked for a more perfect place to end the session. While it wasn't technically a cliffhanger, it was a very suspenseful moment to end. This is absolutely the first game I have ever run where a level one character died and was brought back to life by another level one character using a wish spell. Wild stuff!

Chalice-of-Duskviolet never actually told anyone that she was granted that wish spell, so even though the players knew, the characters did not. And I was honestly very impressed as to how well the players handled something that they knew but their characters didn't. That can always be hard to pull off, and they all nailed it.

Over the next few days, I sent Moriah’s player several messages about what might have changed with Moriah. Death is meant to be pretty final in the system, so I wanted it to have ramifications, even though she was brought back to life. After throwing a few options around, we settled on her being able to see others who have died and been brought back to life. I left the details pretty vague, but in my head, it means that she sees people in their moment of death. If somebody died by being stabbed in the chest, when she sees that person, she sees an open, bloody wound in their chest. I can't imagine this will be very common because, again, death is pretty final in Dollywood, but it could lead to some interesting situations. I also told her that she was far more comfortable in the cold now, like the group was wearing cold-weather clothing, and she was getting pretty hot in it. Mechanically, I’m going to reverse the difficulty of camping during Summer and Winter for her.

I'm also very impressed and pleased that the group is approaching combat creatively. I've played with some groups before that would simply have charged into fighting those four crookhorns, and while they might have won, several of them certainly would have died. The players seem to be painfully aware of their fragility and are taking steps to win fights by any means necessary.

We’ll pick up next time with the group processing Moriah’s revival and continuing their search for the source of the Pipe Music that seems to be coming from beneath the ruined fort. Until then, stay curious.

P.S. The length of these elvish names are going to kill me.