Session 06
General Summary
The sun was close to setting and the five young Albioners were close to the hamlet of New Keep.
Something was amiss. The place was quiet ... too quiet. Then from behind a house emerged a large
two-headed giant, an ettin! It seemed to be attacking something, then slung a cow over its shoulder
and ambled off into the nearby forest. As the group cautiously approached the village, they began
to see signs of life. Villagers emerged from their houses and began to take stock of the damage.
Soon the sound of hammering and sweeping filled the air. The people didn't seem surprised by
what had happened. By now the Albioners were into the village itself and soon noticed that a
crowd was gathering at the far side of the village. They joined the throng and found themselves
stood next to a ravine with a fast flowing river at the bottom. Torn ropes and splintered timbers
were all that remained of the bridge - the only way of crossing the rivers for miles in either
direction and the reason the travellers had headed to New Keep in the first place. Ethulwulf asked
a bystander what had happened. Apparently Noldor, a foolishly brave militiaman, had tried
taunting the ettin hoping it would fall off the bridge and die. Instead the ettin had smashed the
bridge until it, and Noldor, plunged into the ravine. In the past few weeks the ettin had also
attacked nearby farms, eaten livestock and killed any who had opposed it. With nothing better to
do until the bridge was repaired, the brave and gallant heroes volunteered to deal with the ettin.
They then met with the three most senior villagers - Aranda the Elder, Malwick the Sheriff and
Restik the priest - to try and gain further information on events and the creature.
A few miles from New Keep stood an abandoned village named Old Keep, which the villagers
had fled when it was taken over by a demonologist called Stondalus some 4 years ago. Not much
had been seen of Stondalus since then, perhaps he'd been killed by a band of adventurers led by a
priest named Father Kurnin, who'd travelled Albion burning heretics at the stake. Having said that,
nothing had been seen of the adventurers since they'd headed to Old Keep some 2 years ago.
Anyway, it was supposed that the ettin laired in Old Keep, possibly in servitude to Stondalus.
More details were provided of the ettins's actions. It typically visited the village every day,
smashed a few things, fought anybody who got too near it and then took some livestock away for
food. However it also visited the hamlet every night, moving very stealthily and fleeing when
spotted. Sneaking around sounded like most unusual behaviour for an ettin to those who'd been
told of such creatures. Perhaps the ettin was searching for something at the bequest of Stondalus?
Obviously the village was only 4 years old but could there be anything of importance that a
demonologist might want, such as a holy relic kept in the chapel? At this point Restik mentioned
another unusual action of the ettin - it appeared to have painted writing on the chapel wall. At this
point a visit to the chapel was required. Daubed letters covered the west wall with repeated copies
of a verse:
"Two heads have we, but born with one. We strengthened, healed and protected. Our master was the Shining One. But punished we, all who objected. Heeded we, the Prince of Darkness. And so by our god were rejected. Thus, this is our fate: One head twice bisected."This was puzzled over and the subject of much debate. The eventual conclusion was that a fallen priest of Pelor had been cursed and shapechanged into an ettin somehow. For whatever reason it was evil by daylight and repentant by night. Zandrill had a cunning idea. He fetched a broken door and wrote a reply which could be propped next to the chapel in the hope the ettin would see it: "We mean you no harm. We only want to talk. We have read your message. We want to help you. Do you want our help? We need you to tell us how to help you." With Restik's help, a nearby house with a good view of the chapel was requisitioned from a scared villager and the group settled in for the night, hoping to witness the ettin's strange behaviour for themselves and also hoping that the giant wouldn't run amok. About 2am, the ettin was observed sneaking around the village, eventually arriving at the chapel. It carried paint and a brush. It was clear that the right head was fast asleep while the left head looked around anxiously - this explained the split personality. The ettin then did something very strange - it knelt down before the chapel as though in prayer. At this point Zandrill had seen enough and left the safety of the house to approach the ettin to speak. He whispered so as not to awaken the sleeping head. The ettin's left head claimed to be Father Kurnin, shapechanged into an ettin by Stondalus as they fought all those years ago. Despite being an ettin he'd managed to slay Stondalus. He said he'd then managed to live a peaceful though lonely existence until just a few weeks ago when he was attacked by some orcs. Somehow the adrenaline and bloodlust awoke the evil right head, named Muck, which had begun to exert greater and greater dominance hence the recent attacks on the village. Father Restik was fetched to advise on the situation and to see if he could help reverse the shapechanging magic. This proved to be beyond his power. Father Kurnin said he himself used to have the necessary magical power but since turning into an ettin, Pelor had refused to grant him any spells. Instead he received the riddle. It was hoped that solving the riddle would allow Father Kurnin to receive Pelor's blessing and return himself to human. There then followed much debate and discussion. Eventually, the answer was discovered to be Father Kurnin himself. He fit all the descriptions in the verse and he also possessed the necessary magical power to reverse the shapechange, with Pelor's blessing. There was a sudden flash of brilliant white light and Kurnin was returned to Human form. When the group awoke they found Father Kurnin waiting for them to thank them for saving him. He'd been given some robes by Father Restik and now planned to head south to visit The Cathedral and begin atoning for his sins. He mentioned that there could well be some treasure left in the Old Keep from when Stondalus had lived there. This sounded worth a look, especially when Ermenred realised there might be some magical lore to be found. Hastily grabbing provisions, the group headed out into the forest en route to the Old Keep. After a while they encountered a band of orcs who parlayed rather than attacking. The orcs complained about the ettin and were told that the group planned to "deal with" the giant and raid his lair. Later that day, whilst still in the forest, a pair of ogres launched an ambush. Heremod was dropped very quickly by a mighty blow, soon followed by Ermenred. However Ethulwulf had a rare spell of good fortune and managed to land killing blows on both ogres, ably assisted by the dependable Zandrill and Brabus. Despite their victory, the ogres had inflicted grave wounds so an immediate camp was found to try and rest and recover as much as possible, boosted by Zandrill's healing powers. Ethulwulf awoke Zandrill with a grim face. It appeared that, despite their best efforts, Ermenred had died in the night, a victim of the ogres. Zandrill leapt up and rushed to Ermenred to see if his magic could help, only to discover Ermenred was more than definitely still alive. With a grin, Ethulwulf announced "April Fool" though perhaps it was not the most appropriate time to play tricks. The rest of the day was spent in camp, further recovering from the recent fight. Finally well enough to travel on, the group reached Old Keep without further difficulties. The village was ruined apart from the shell of the castle, which had gaping holes in the tower and roof. Inside, the stench and destruction showed it was definitely the old ettin lair. Writing on the wall in charcoal contained scraps of phrases relating to the riddle solved a few days previously. Ermenred sniffed out some magical emanations which turned out to be a potion, an enchanted sword and some enchanted armour. More importantly for him, he also found a scroll describing a polymorph spell. This could have been what Stondalus used on Father Kurnin. The rest of the day was spent resting in the keep, as it provided some protection from the elements and also from any unfriendly creatures in the area. Ermenred spent the day deciphering the polymorph scroll and by the evening was triumphant as he'd fully understood it. The return journey to New Keep was swift and uneventful. Thankfully the bridge was now repaired. The group restocked on their provisions and headed out on the track towards Melinas. Breakfast was rudely interrupted by the arrival of a dozen orcs surrounding the camp. Heremod and Ethulwulf leapt up and charged towards a clump of orcs who looked like leaders. Heremod began carving a swath of destruction while Ethulwulf fell victim to an axe nearly as large as his own. Meanwhile Zandrill, Brabus and Ermenred were swamped by the rest of the orcs. Despite magically growing a troglodyte's scaly hide, Ermenred took a terrible falchion hit and dropped before he could contribute to the fight. Once again the dependable duo of Brabus and Zandrill were steadfast in combat, helped massively by Heremod's twin blades, and caused the orcs to flee once their numbers were down to just three. Panting from extertion, they were relieved to find that Ethulwulf and Ermenred still lived and pondered how long it would take to recover from their latest wounds.
Report Date
10 Apr 2024
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