Weird-Eyes

General Summary

The party allows a week for Norins leg to heal from his brush with death, and he is mad when he realizes three of his toes were lost due to the party's negligence. This week, during which the crossing of Cilpir takes place, is spent in relative relaxation as everyone takes a break from the intensity of the previous few days. Pimwrick spends his week practising pottery at a local store, owned by a woman named Vennan, while Craig trains guards under the authority of the new captain of the guard Ana. Arviel does her best to talk to Tarek to get on better with the grouchy Dragonborn, as it seems like they will be travelling together further after this week, but he seems largely unresponsive. While Norin is busy seducing both the attractive bartender Trukag and his wife Rhax, Craig and Arviel try to convince Snap to enjoy herself more, finding she has spent most of her life working in a temple and knows very little of enjoying the outside world. Tarek, Snap and Craig also make their way to a bookshop, where they meet an eccentric gnome.   The week drawing to a close, everyone prepares themselves to get back on the road. With Norins leg mostly healed and everyone else's business concluded, the party spends a final night in the Copper Spoon - but a hefty blizzard starts that night, and they can't leave the next morning. Summoning them to a system of caves where some of the townsfolk will stay, the new mayor Jafaedeth Mithrilhide, a dwarven woman who worked as Glorinduc's treasurer before, asks them to help keep everything running smoothly until the blizzard is over. Seeing as can't leave anyway, the party accepts, and Ana orders them to do various different things.   At the end of the day, Arviel and Pimwrick agree to stay in the caves to make sure the villagers there are protected, while the rest go back to the Copper Spoon which Trukag claims won't be damaged by the blizzard. In the taverns common room, Tarek asks Trukag some questions about the nature of this storm, and although Trukag admits these storms aren't rare he does seem to think there is more to it than just a coincidence - before he can explain what he means, however, a knock on the door distracts him. But when Norin opens the door, there is no one there.   After chatting to Rhax, Norin spends his night with the owners of the establishment while the rest sleep upstairs. When Norin also leaves for his bed, his business downstairs concluded, he hears a strange tapping noise on the window in the darkness of the taverns common room. He looks outside and sees a shape move in the darkness, a small figure. A slow knock on the door follows immediately, and with some hesitation, he walks over and opens it. There is no one there, again. Confused and annoyed, he's about to slam the door when he hears a whisper behind him - 'three was not enough'. A hard gust of wind blows out the candle behind him and he is now in complete darkness, and in response he slams the door shut, awakening everyone in the house. At that moment, a child's wails can be heard outside.   Rushing out to find the source of the crying, behind a locked door that Arviel swiftly manages to pick, the party finds a horrible sight - a mother appears to have cut three fingers off of the right hand of her son. When questioned she seems entirely cold to the touch, and she claims through tears to have done it because she was so hungry and cold. The child, named Theo, is taken to the caves, while Norin and Ana take the mother, named Tysha, into jail. Norin questions her furiously, but she doesn't give any logical answers, and Ana explains to Norin that the woman has always been unstable and it must have been because of the stress of the blizzard. Worried, the party spends the rest of the night in the cave, ensuring no one harbours any malicious intent towards Theo.   The next day, Tarek and Snap have a quick conversation with a half-elven doctor called Hennan, who is taking care of Theo's wounds, and his son - they gather that most members of town don't believe this is anything supernatural, merely a result of human fear. The blizzard increases in strength, and the party helps out all day moving people from their houses to the caves and performing other small jobs. That evening, Trukag invites everyone over to unwind with some ale at the Copper Spoon, and the party gladly accepts - they play cards for a while until they hear a strange tale from one of the other players about the House on Carve Peak and the family that went insane there. Pimwrick and Tarek discuss going there immediately but are quickly talked out of it as the weather seems too intense, as well as the fact that the story was probably just fake. Norin and Arviel stay the night in the Spoon, while the others escort the villagers back to the caves.   That night, Arviel has a strange experience. She hears bashing noises downstairs, and when trying to reach Norin finds the door to their room is locked. Thoroughly scared, she inches down the stairs as quietly as she can, only to find Trukag slamming his fists against the floorboards of his own restaurant. She casts command on him to stop him, and Trukag now slowly gets up. He talks to her about eyes watching him from under the floorboards, and starts to walk closer and closer to her. Arviel steps back but the large Trukag puts a hand on her shoulder, looking confused and stricken, and laughs as he tells her he must seem crazy. Suddenly his eyes start to swell until they pop, he falls onto her, and she wakes up in her bed with a shout. Norin wakes up because of this and the two of them go down to check on Trukag, who they wake up but seems completely fine. Arviel doesn't sleep anymore.   They spend the next day busy with all sorts of work. Tarek and Snap make their way to the gnomish bookseller to ask if he knows about the House on Carve Peak, and he says he's quite familiar with the story - he had tried to write a novel about it but the town made him burn the book. He doesn't recommend going up there, it could only bring bad fortune. He does manage to sell Snap a novel he wrote about a Tabaxi paranormal investigator called Arcane Paw.   Towards the end of the day, Craig hears a fight happen while the rest are watching over the townsfolk eating. After running over to break it up, he hears a strange child's laughter come from further down, and investigating he sees a young boy laughing and playing. The boy tells him that 'it' doesn't like being watched, that they brought an eye to watch it, then falls asleep. Confused, Craig takes the young boy in his arms and walks back to the eating hall, where Tarek and Snap see the truth - the child is dead, his neck torn open viciously. Checking the body, Tarek spots that three of his toes are missing on his right foot, the same place as Norins. They try to calm the rising panic, realizing this is the son of doctor Hennan, but then Ana calls them and tells them there is an emergency at the jail cell and that they should go there straight away.   Heading over as quickly as they can through the snow, they see a terrified Glorinduc with the brutally murdered body of Tysha in his cell. Glorinduc speaks in gibberish, calling Tarek Sulrash and telling him to go to his church. Norin throws Glorinduc over his shoulder and they head out to the church, fear in their hearts.   They slowly move through the church as Pimwrick detects a source of divine power downstairs. He heads into Sulrash' room, seeing a strange object, but once he is inside the door shuts behind him and he is alone. The music box plays and the world around him changes into the grassy hills of his homeland, and he sees young children playing around him. When he adresses one of them, she begins to change into a massive hill giant, while the others behind her change as well and start bashing the ground. Readying himself for a fight, he feels no presence of his deity, and instead of a fiery presence his eyes leak black liquid - terror overtakes him.   Just before the hill giant hits him, however, a presence pulls him from the vision, and the door to Sulrash' room opens. Pimwrick is now next to a ghostly figure - Zharem, the tiefling girl who died when they fought Sulrash. After initial distrust, she explains her situation, as well as the great power of the House on Carve Peak. She says she and her brother were taken from the house by Sulrash after her parents went mad, that there was a being in there trying to eat their souls that fell into a deep slumber after her father burnt down part of the house but had now awakened. She says she can't pass on to the next world because this being is keeping her back, trying to make her shut the eye these people had brought into town.   Zharem gives them two options - run as far away as you can, don't look back until you fall down, then hope you wake up, or go to the house and put an end to this creature's powers. They decide to do the second as the ghostly being disappears, unable to remain for long, and despite being terrified they head out towards the House on Carve Peak. Glorinduc, who has awakened and seems somewhat more stable, tells them he wants to come with them, and the party decides they'll take all the help they can get, allowing him a spot amongst the group.   As they head for the house, the storm seems to be weaker around them, a token of protection from Zharem. After a long and cold walk, they see the house looming up in the distance, an eerie sight to say the least. Part of one of the wings looks burnt down, and the rest looks cold, dark, and long-deserted. Snap and Pimwrick spot a figure stalking them as they walk towards the house, dashing between the trees. The storm whips up their hair as the group finds a broken down piece of wall where they can make their entrance.   Deciding that the stealthier group should go first, they give Snap one of the sending stones and Craig the other. Snap, Arviel and Norin walk inside carefully, arriving in the main hall with a massive hole in the floorboards and scratches covering the ground. Realizing whatever is down that hole, it won't be nice, they slowly inch closer. Without them knowing, Craig receives a message through the sending stone from Snap, telling them to come through and help them upstairs. Worried, Craig and the group head in, failing to notice Glorinduc turning invisible and running away as fast as he can.   Craig, Pimwrick and Tarek arrive in a strange, clean main hall. Heading up the stairs, they are confused for a second, before Pimwrick sees through the illusion. When he turns around, he sees a strange dark elven woman, whose head then falls off, sending a shocked look of recognition through Craig's face. Now seeing the world for how it truly is, a dark creature emerges from the pit, it's tentacles covered in yellowy eyes with slitted pupils, its body made of pure darkness - behind Craig, the figure of the tiefling brother appears, who stabs him in the back as the monster approaches. The party tries to fight the enormous leviathan, but to no avail as the creature seems to be manipulating their minds to attack one another and run in fear.   The tentacles cover Craig as the creature demands 'the eye'. Nothing seems to be working - the most Pimwrick can do is try to destroy the body of the ghostly tiefling assassin. As Craig manages to run away, his eyes still burning with the visions he received from the tentacles. Norin manages to land a hit that attracts the leviathans attention, and a massive eye appears before him. The voice rumbles that without the eye, it will take theirs instead, and with a bloodcurdling 'plop' a tentacle sucks Craig's right eye straight from his skull.   Now focussing on Norin, the creature starts to work on the half-orc, the tentacles overpowering him, but an enraged Norin stands strong against it, his anger and rage driving him. Tarek gives everything to try and slow the creature down, but an array of spiky tentacles eliminate both him and Arviel from the fight. Snap manages to bring the ghostly assassin down, but it's Pimwrick who realizes what the creature is truly after - he grabs the small pearl from Craig's terrified form and, after trying to destroy it, holds it out towards the creature. With a tentacle, it grabs Pimwrick's hand, and Pimwrick realizes some being had been watching them through this eye ever since they found it. The creature crushes the pearl.   Now satisfied, the creature returns to its hole. As Snap quickly heals Tarek, and Pimwrick uses divine power to heal Craig's eye wound and Arviels wounds, they head out as fast as they can. The blizzard has ceded - the party realizes Glorinduc ran away some time ago, but they have almost no time to be worrying about that. Exhausted, the party heads back to town, where mayor Jafaedeth thanks them, and then asks them to not tell anyone whatever they saw up there. Despite each of them promising, Tarek sends Snap away that night with an important letter for 'his master'. They spend the night in the Elf in the North, completely shattered both emotionally and physically.

Created Content

From the morning of the 37th past Feribon to the late morning of the 11th past Cilpir.