The Luthier's Folly
Four unique individuals meet in a dream to save a town from a mysterious curse
General Summary
Our companions, Leon, Henry, Fannie, and Jerry, awake to an unfamiliar sight, but a familiar sound. People are gathering at a nearby community center in the town of Stonega, Virginia, ready to dance and sing away the worries and fears of every day life working in the coal mines and toiling in the fields. The only problem is Stonega is not where our four companions went to sleep, nor were they even in the same location with each other. Hell, some of them haven't even met each other. Yet hear they are, awake and heading to the shingdig with the rest of the town.
When they arrive, the usual suspects from town are in attendance. Leenie Reaves and her band, Opaline and the Shape Notes, are setting up on stage. Effie Thomas is warming up her singing voice, while Aurelia Norman puts on her dancing shoes. Gaine Cormey and Deion Beaty are having a conversation near the food table, whild Miss Odessa keeps a watchful eye on everyone. The faces and names shouldn't be familiar, yet they are. And before there's too much time to think about it, the music starts playing.
It doesn't take long before something goes horribly wrong. After a lively first tune, Leenie begins to fiddle a mournful sad song. Her hair starts to go gray right in front of everyone, and soon everyon starts showing signs of aging, including our companions. Wrinkles begin to show, joints start to ache. Vision and memory become harder. It started with the song, and it's plain to see Leenie doesn't seem to be playing that fiddle of her own accord. With quick action, the group knocks the fiddle from her hands, and the aging seems to stop, but it doesn't go away.
Leenie says something came over her. She couldn't stop playing, no matter how much she wanted to. When asked where she got the fiddle, she explained it was her daddy's, but she recently had it repaired by a traveling luthier named Pollard Bales. She hadn't seen him since he completed the repairs, but she knew he was staying at the Gilman's Boarding House.
The party heads to the boarding house where Ruth Gilman and Bittie Connor let them in to see Pollard. Pollard is a mess, hallucinating, and hard to understand. He spins a tale about getting lost in a thicket. When he thought he had now way out, a mysterious tree spoke to him, and promised to lead him out of the thicket if he took some of its wood, and used it to spread her voice around. He did escape, and so he used that wood to repair the fiddle. The location he spoke of could only be Jimmie's Hell, a laurel thicket just South of town. Miss Odessa provides the group with a bone handled knife, and tells them how to get to the thicket. They must find the tree to find out how to lift the curse.
The companions find the thicket and venture in, coming across all sorts of problems. The branches seem to bleed when broken, and every mistep seems to make the thicket angrier. They fight off a wild board, and traverse dangerous terrain. After more than a day of hiking, they eventually come to a clearing with one of the largest and most beautiful trees any of them have ever seen. When prompted, the tree tells them a slightly different story than Pollard.
The tree is a prisoner of sorts. And it wishes to be free. Pollar promised to free it if she helped him out of the thicket so she provided some wood that would show him the way, as long as he kept his promise. Pollard broke his promise, discarding all notion of helping, and the wood turned cursed. You see, the tree keeps a prisoner, deep underground within its roots that must never go free. But the tree is tired of being a guard. It has been here for so long, and is very tired. The tree promises the party a wish granted, if they can find a way to relieve it of its duties.
Meanwhile, the Cindering, deep in the earth under the tree, presses its way into the minds of our compansions, eventually settling with Jerry. The Cindering promises pure joy and happiness, if only it could be freed. Jerry resists a bit, but can't help but consider this promise. The group makes a deal with the tree. If it drops the curse, they will search for a way to free it, no matter how long it takes. The tree makes a pact, inserting a small splinter into the hands of the companions as a reminder of their promise. Then the path opens up, and the group returns to the town, the curse having been lifted.
The residents of Stonega are elated to be their true ages again. Even Pollard is feeling better, though he's run out of town shortly after for the trouble he's caused. After a night of merry making, the companions go to sleep, and awake far from the lonely coal mining town, where they had fallen asleep days before. Maybe it was just a dream afterall. But in turn, each of them begins to worry at a slight soreness in the palm of their hand. And Jerry has a new voice in the back of his head.
Playtest: This adventure was the starter adventure playtested before the release of the book. It was also the first session playing Old Gods of Appalachia for this group.
Report Date
22 Apr 2023
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