The Knight and the Princess - Dolmenwood Play Reports: Session 2

The group continues through Sir Chyde's tomb in the Winter's Daughter adventure.

In the last session, the group had mostly talked their way through the Tomb of Sir Chyde to recover his ring. They had decided to take the ring to Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk in faerie rather than return it to Mostlemyre in Prigwort for the reward. Now, they had just entered Sir Chyde’s tomb and found the spectral form of the knight himself waiting for them.

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Characters

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

Day 1, Grimvold 1st, 1089
Weather: Snowstorm

Deep in the heart of Sir Chyde’s tomb, the spectral form of the knight asked, “What brings you to my tomb?” The group all turned to look at Chalice-of-Duskviolet to take the lead. She explained that she was there to retrieve his ring and take it to Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk. Sir Chyde sobbed with joy and profound relief. Finally, after 800 years, he would be reunited with his love. Chalice-of-Duskviolet failed to mention that she had no intention of bringing his spirit with her. She was in love with the Princess and had no interest in bringing one of her former romances along.

Sister Molly and Roland also spoke with Sir Chyde about the tomb's history. They learned the tomb was once a temple dedicated to Saint Sedge, and they could reclaim the tomb for the church if they wished to spend the time and resources to restore it.

The group continued to follow Chalice-of-Duskviolet’s lead and left Sir Chyde’s burial chamber. They headed for the entrance to faerie Sir Chyde had told them lay below the tomb when Chalice-of-Duskviolet realized she had a problem. Sir Chyde’s spirit was following them. Her initial plan was to leave his spirit in the tomb, bring the ring to Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk, and profess her love for her. Now, it seemed that Sir Chyde’s spirit was anchored to the ring, this presented a significant obstacle. For now, all she could do was press forward.

They followed Sir Chyde's directions and moved through the tomb to a set of stairs that led down. At the bottom was a flooded room with hundreds of candles floating throughout. Despite being centuries old, the water was crystal clear, like a pure alpine lake. Sister Molly and Roland recognized the candles as holy wards to keep away evil (and fae). Chalice-of-Duskviolet could smell the presence of faerie in this room and, confident the lake was a portal to the fae realm, stepped into the room with confidence. The others watched as she and the spirit of Sir Chyde vanished into the air. After a brief discussion, the group decided to follow.

At this point, Molly's player had some questions about the fae and called for an "over-table" discussion. I encourage my players to do this if they are ever confused or want to know if their character would know something. While I might want the characters to be confused, I don't want the players to be. I'm always comfortable saying, "You wouldn't know," or letting a luck roll decide if that's what needs to happen. In this case, the player wanted to know if Sister Molly would be ok with going to faerie. Dolmenwood has a very heavy "church vs fae" theme going on, and he wanted to know if that should inform his decision. I gave him some background on the conflict but ultimately left it up to him. The short version is that fae can't be saved by the one true god, and so the church is often dismissive or hostile to them. It doesn't help that a fae tyrant called the Cold Prince once ruled Dolmenwood. Molly’s player thought about it for a few minutes and decided that Molly, being a nun/friar, would be more concerned about the people of Dolmenwood than the politics of the church and the fae. Rather than take a strict stance, she would judge each person individually. I could see this putting her into conflict with some more “extreme” members of the church.

After passing through the portal, the group found themselves in an area of the fae called Frigia. As a domain of the Cold Prince, it is a realm of eternal winter. Ahead of them, a stone tower covered in ice stood at the center of a frozen pond. Chalice-of-Duskviolet led the way to the tower's entrance to speak with the guards, a giant moss-covered troll and an exceptionally small goblin sitting on his shoulder. Upon the group’s approach, the guards ask if they have a wedding invitation. Chalice-of-Duskviolet tells them that Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk knows her personally and has requested her presence. While initially skeptical, the tiny goblin said that he would check with the Princess and get back to them. He did want to know what the ghost was all about, though, indicating the spirit of Sir Chyde.

Shoulder Goblin: “Ok, but what’s that ghost all about?”
Chalice-of-Duskviolet: “It’s a wedding present.”
Goblin: “Ok, that checks out. It’s fine.”

As the goblin left, he told them not to go anywhere and gave explicit directions to his moss ogre ally. "Murder them all if they try to run."

Several minutes later, the goblin returned and told them that two guards would escort them to the Princess at the top of the tower. On their way, they passed a small gathering of fae nobles gathered around a feasting table. The table was covered in some of the most delectable looking and smelling food they had ever encountered. This was the wedding feast of Sir Chyde and Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk, and it had been ongoing for the last 800 years. For many of the fae present, the group represented the first visitors from outside faerie in just as long. They seemed desperate for news of the outside world and practically swarmed the characters on their way through.

Eventually, the group detached themselves from the nobles and arrived at Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk’s private chambers. There, the spirit of Sir Chyde and the Princess were reunited. While the two were overjoyed, Chalice-of-Duskviolet was devastated. She finally realized that Snowfall-at-Dusk had used her as a mere tool to transport her true love. Knowing how emotionally difficult this truth would be, Snowfall-at-Dusk asked to speak with Chalice-of-Duskviolet privately. She apologized profusely and said she knew her actions to be manipulative, but she would do it again if needed. She asked Chalice-of-Duskviolet to imagine enduring the heartbreak she currently felt for 800 years. Since Sir Chyde’s death, their rings had allowed them to communicate across worlds for 1 night a month. Unable to be together yet unwilling to move on, the two have lived with broken hearts and barely attainable hope for centuries.

She told Chalice-of-Duskviolet, “I am sorry for hurting you, and I know what I did was wrong, but if I am honest, I would do it again. I would give anything to be reunited with my love.” In return for such pain, Snowfall-at-Dusk offered Chalice-of-Duskviolet something incredibly rare: her wish. The Princess told her that a faerie of enough power can grant a single wish once in their lifetime. That wish would be Chalice-of-Duskviolet’s if she ever asked for it.

The Princess then asked to speak to the rest of the group. She asked each of them why they had agreed to help reunite her with her love and rewarded them accordingly. She gave them jewels from faerie, and Sir Chyde permitted them to take his bracers and sword from his tomb. Snowfall-at-Dusk also gave Hesper a once-in-a-lifetime experience. She granted him a blessing that allowed him to eat the food in faerie without becoming bound to the world.

After many thanks and courtesies, the group left the happy couple alone, and after Hesper sampled some of the fae food, they made their way back to the mortal world.

Knowing the current time of day, the group decided they would rest inside Sir Chyde’s burial chamber. Given that it could only be opened with a magical passphrase, they felt safe from any nearby monsters. All in all, the group decided it had been a successful day.

I like to give players what they want for their characters, especially when it isn’t overpowered, and I look for ways to do this in the game’s fiction. Their meeting with Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk was a perfect opportunity for this. While I don’t want to just outright ask, “What do you want?” it is easy to ask, “Why have you come?” By giving Chalice-of-Duskviolet the “I’m in love with the Princess” hook, it’s easy to know why she is there. Moriah and Jack were there for the reward, while Sister Molly and Roland both expressed interest in restoring the temple to St Sedge within the tomb. Hesper gave the most interesting answer when he said he just wanted to travel the world and experience new things. I quickly decided it would be a cool character moment to let him eat the food in faerie without getting stuck there. These are the easy things to do for your players that make them feel connected to the world without breaking anything.

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With that, the group wrapped up Winter’s Daughter. They got less gold than had they simply returned the ring to Mostlemyre in Prigwort but they avoided being haunted by a ghost, they got a cool sword, and one of the characters can now call in a wish! Chalice-of-Duskviolet is keeping that a secret from the group for now so we’ll have to see what comes of it. In my experience, there are two kinds of players with wish spells (or really anything super powerful for that matter). They either use it pretty quickly on the first reasonable thing, or they hoard it forever.

Honestly, the group only explored like half the tomb. They seem like a pretty laser-focused group and focused purely on the “best” way to accomplish the objective. In this case, get the ring, then return the ring. I think this is a pretty reasonable approach to deadly games, especially at lower levels. They all know exactly how fragile they are and are approaching things with that in mind. I could have “forced” them to explore more of the tomb had I not had Lady Amaranda give them to password to Sir Chyde’s tomb last session, but it felt right. I wanted to reward them for the social encounter and it just made sense.

As for my thoughts on the Winter’s Daughter adventure; I think it’s good, not great. It is a good introductory adventure but a little empty, and a bit wacky. If I run it again I would remove the green slime in the family tomb, per the book:

Touching with flesh: Slime rushes over the PC’s whole body in an instant, coating them with a thin layer. The PC becomes lighter than air, drifting up to the ceiling. This is permanent, unless the slime is removed (e.g. dispel magic).

Other than that it really serves no purpose. It kind of feels like an odd gotcha! moment. The dancing skeletons weren’t any better just because they were upside down. I’d just drop it. Though if you want weird it’s easy enough to keep in.

I also think I would start the group at the entrance to the tomb. The whole standing stone thing outside doesn’t really serve a purpose and was mostly just a 30-minute distraction for us. Apparently, Winter’s Daughter used to have a different opening scene outside the tomb but I’m not sure what it was.

Despite these very minor gripes, I do think the adventure is a good one to start with. I’m also planning on making it a potential site of importance in the large Dolmenwood campaign. As I see it three different factions might take interest in this place. The Church would love to reconsecrate the chapel/shrine to St Sedge, the Drune are interested in the standing stones outside, and the Frost Prince would have to know there is a way out of Frigia now. There is no way five mortals entered his domain and then left a few hours later and he didn’t know.

We’ll pick up next time with the group traveling back to Prigwort where they will figure out what they want to do next!

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