Coia: 15 - A Cabin in the Woods
General Summary
After docking in Aveton, the group pays Captain Ron 20G after he's indignant over the repairs needed to his boat and anchor. Knowing that we’ll be looking for more information about the Red Cloaks, Sszarden disguises himself as Dannish before leaving the ship. We head into town and return princess Sachia to her uncle Lord DavidLee Roth. He's not too pleased with the blood all over her clothes and the fact that she's almost catatonic. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to remember dying (or at least is too stunned to tell him about it). He tells us to come back tomorrow to collect our money.
Leaving the castle we bump into our old friend Jayson Boothebarrel who says he’s in town looking for someone. It's the summer solstice festival in Aveton and the group heads over to the Deadfish Tavern that Capt. Ron told them about. At the tavern, the barmaid notices Sszarden’s outfit and tells them that the Red Cloaks are essentially an underground mafia and if he walked around looking like that, the group would be inviting trouble. She said we should look for signs similar to what we saw in Tetbury if we wanted more information.
Just then, some guy snatched our bag of holding and quickly high-tailed it out of the tavern while Emis sipped his green-leaf kombucha. After some confusion, we all got up and chased the thief into the woods. We followed him up to a small cabin that seemed impenetrable although the front door was wide open. We didn't see anyone inside so one by one we went passed through the front door, each seeming to be swallowed by a portal as we entered. Retta, the last to attempt to walk through was bounced back and fell on the ground unconscious.
The rest of us awoke in a strange state, all in disarray as though we'd been fighting with each other. The thief awoke and told us his name was Diothenes Jug and he's the avowed from Candlekeep that Jayson was looking for. He claims to have experienced the same disorientation that we had and didn’t know why he was there. Stifling our suspicion for the time-being, we wandered around the cabin, looking for a way out. We entered the arboretum next door and found a box guarded by some harpies. Jayson immediately attacked them when he entered the room and after a brief battle, we dispatched them. We found some good loot in a box; Moose found a chain with a gold skull (the Amulet of the Planes).
Turning to another room, some of the group go in only to find they can’t speak in that room. But there's a glowing blue circle on the floor and as they pass it, half the party turns on each other. After some mild infighting, the group comes to their senses and continues down to the library. They find another blue circle and again after stepping on it, half the party turns and needs a beat down to come back. Amidst the rubble after the fight the group finds some magic books. Zen finds " Dasok’s Codes of Demiflames", Nym finds "Arcane Tables of Dasok +1 to performance" and Szarden finds "Dasok’s scripture +1 intelligence"
The group ventures upstairs to find a very cold room with a little girl on the bed in the middle. They try to console her, but as they approach, she turns into an old hag and attacks. They quickly kill her and loot the room. Jayson finds a magic bow, Emis gets a spell, and they find a ton of gold.
They continue on into a new room where they find a circle in the middle and 2 flaming skulls floating nearby. Diothenes runs into the center and yells "Now I will complete the ritual!” and they realize that this was a trap. In a rather confusing battle, Jayson knocks out Diothenes, but Emis quickly revives him because he wants to talk to him. Sszarden knocks out Diothenes again while Jayson loots his body. Again, Emis revives Diothenes. After seeing Jayson knock out Diothenes and loot the body instead of helping Nym fight off the flaming skulls, Moose turns his rage on Jayson. He knocks him unconscious and while Nym tries to pull Jayson back away to save him, Moose catches up to them and delivers a death blow to Jayson.
As he does, the entire group (at least everyone still alive) instantly finds themselves transported back to the forest outside of the cabin. Apparently the cabin just needed someone to die as a sacrifice.
Rewards Granted
- From Harpies: 500 G, 10 candles, magnifying glass, 4 diamonds, 2 healing potions, pot of climbing, Amulet of the Planes
- From Hag: 3100 G, 3rd level spell scroll, Magic Bow, potion of Hill Giant Strength
Sszardan T'Sarran
Zenhorn
Emis Faralei
Retta
Nym Lenore
Moose Knuckle
Report Date
18 Jan 2023