In Dreams - Session 08
The Face that Melted, and the Man that Flew
General Summary
Reeve Brellin provides some additional background. When Bendam Mitchar was last in Malrikstead, four or five days ago, he had grumbled about tremors on his farm spooking his animals. But he has a reputation for pronouncing doom and gloom at every opportunity, and no-one took his complaints very seriously.
Alvar offers to investigate, and Sylman, Mongo, Eric, and Bruno agree to accompany him. Father Ethan declares that he will stay in Malriksted and pay his respects at the village shrine. This is clearly a devout community, with many of the locals wearing holy symbols of the Maker. Mongo also wishes to pray at the shrine before going.
The shrine is a simple affair, a dais bearing the symbol of the Maker surmounted by a vine-covered trellis. Nearby is a statue of a heroic man with sword in hand, pointing back towards the east. At Eric's inquiry, Brellin explains that this is a statue to her cousin, Malrik Santagar, the son of the local Count, who perished somewhere over the mountains during the Shadow War. When the Dead invaded Asturia, he swore vengeance and led a force of 500 men against them. Neither he nor his men ever returned, but the town was renamed and this statue erected in his honour. Mongo is touched by Malrik's heroic sacrifice.
After half an hour, Father Ethan finishes his prayers at the shrine and visits with the villagers, while Mongo continues to pray. Bored, Sylman watches the caravan guards load additional goods for the monastery onto the wagons, then pokes desultorily through the town's simple shop. Alvar waits impatiently, while Eric practices his music. Finally, after two hours of prayer, Mongo is ready to leave.
They decide to let the horses rest and walk the eastern road to Mitchar's farm. In the distance they can see the mountain where the monastery is located, surrounded by a heavily wooded area at the base and crowned with grey clouds at the summit. The sky becomes overcast as they walk.
Mitchar's farm is somewhat run down, surrounded by low stone walls. From the road they can see a large barn, a simple one-room house, and several wooden animal pens. But the farm is quiet; they neither see nor hear any animals, with the exception of Sylman, who hears the faint sound of a chicken clucking from one of the buildings, as well as a wet, tearing noise. Leaving Alvar behind on the road, the other four climb over the wall to investigate.
Looking into one of the pens, Sylman raises the alarm when he sees two dog-sized stag beetles eating sheep carcasses. Mongo kills one with his longbow while Eric cuts the head of the other clean off. When two more of the beetles come from around the barn, Mongo and Sylman finish them with more arrow fire. A voice from the house cries, "who's out there?!?" "Friends from the village," Eric responds. "You've got to run!" the voice cries.
Looking more closely at the house, the party spots a freshly dug pit next to it. They disperse in pairs to investigate the house and barn while Alvar makes his way down the road towards the house. Suddenly the ground heaves behind him and another beetle, at least as big as a horse, surges to the surface. As Alvar turns in surprise, it spits a gout of green goo into his face and he falls to the ground, screaming in pain.
Under a hail of arrows from the party, the creature retreats back underground and Bruno is able to carry Alvar into the house. They are joined by Eric and Mongo, while Sylman takes to the roof. Inside, they find a big man with a bushy beard—Mitchar—clinging to the rafters. "Get out of here!" he yells in panic. "Get out of my house!" Ignoring him, Bruno lays Alvar, moaning incoherently, on the single bed. His eyes are gone and half of his face is dissolved.
"How's Alvar?" Sylman calls down the chimney. Hoping to keep up Alvar's morale, Mongo calls back, "he's going to be okay!" "What happened to his face?!?" Mitchar shouts. Hoping to stop any more damage, Eric speaks a Healing Word to Alvar; the bleeding stops and his wounds scab over.
Suddenly the creature erupts through the floor of the house. Mongo, Eric, and Bruno attack it with sword and warhammer while Sylman climbs down from the roof to fire at it through the doorway. Eventually the four of them slay the beast; Bruno lands the finishing blow.
Mitchar descends from the rafters and introduces himself, thanking the party for saving him. He'd been trapped inside the house for days since the beetles first attacked his livestock. He's never heard of creatures like this in the area.
The party checks the outbuildings but finds no more of the beetles. As it is now early evening, after Mitchar gathers a few belongings, they head back to town, assisting the blinded Alvar. Mongo wants to burn down the house with the dead giant beetle inside—it could be bearing eggs, after all, and surely it would be a kindness to relieve Mitchar from the burden of his wretched hovel? But Sylman and Eric persuade him to relent.
By sundown they have returned to Malrikstead, where Reeve Brellin invites them into her home. Mitchar tells the events of the past few days in more detail: tremors, spooked animals, and then, in one of his pastures, the giant beetle erupting from the ground and attacking his cattle, forcing him to flee to the house for safety. More of the beetles soon attacked his remaining livestock. Observing their attacks, he concluded that they could hear their prey's movements, so decided to stay off the ground as much as possible. Brellin has heard travellers' tales of such creatures, but not that they have ever been seen so close to Malrikstead. She will send word to the Count for aid.
After some discussion, it's decided that the caravan will continue to the monastery tomorrow morning as planned. Alvar is well enough to travel and can still guide their journey.
Before the caravan moves to another barn to spend the night, Mitchar pulls aside the party to thank them again, and to offer them a token of gratitude—one that might be especially helpful given where they are going. He gifts them a pair of magical boots, Boots of the Winterlands, that will protect the wearer from cold and provide sure footing in snow and icy conditions. They were a gift "to my great, great grandpappy" from the saint who founded the monastery, in thanks for his ancestor's help in building it. After drawing straws, Mongo gets the boots; he gives them to the wounded Alvar, but Alvar in turn gives them to Eric in thanks for the healing that Eric provided. "I will endeavor to put them to future good works," Eric pledges.
October 27, 1203 AR
The next morning, after a brief stop in the village, the caravan departs eastwards on "Tyral's Road", travelling into the wind. The day passes without incident. A light rain starts as they begin setting up camp, and the night is cold and wet.October 28, 1203 AR
The rain continues throughout the following day. After an hour's further travel east, the caravan reaches "Aldem's Valley", named after a reclusive dwarven woodsman rumoured to be its only resident. Aldem supposedly tired of dwarven politics and retreated into the woods, taking on the role of guardian of the valley. Alvar has never met him on previous journeys. The road descends into the valley, running parallel to a shallow but fast river at the bottom of it. At midday, Mongo sees smoke rising from between the trees in the direction of the river. Sylman sneaks closer to investigate and sees a solitary dwarf, fishing. He leaves him be and returns to the caravan. Four or five hours later, the road starts to rise out of the valley and the trees begin to thin out. They camp for the evening just below where the road begins to climb the mountain proper. Alvar tells them that they are at the foot of "the Saint's Ascent," the narrow path to the monastery. The mountain has a large cleft in it that the road crosses by means of three bridges. The journey could be hazardous, especially if they encounter snow.October 29, 1203 AR
In the morning they start up the mountain. Sylman rides in front of the caravan, and Eric drives the lead wagon. After a couple of hours they reach the first bridge—some 60 feet long, and 10 or 12 feet wide. The second wagon is about halfway across when the group hears the sound of someone singing from below. Eric abruptly stops the wagon, and he, Gracen, Lorgen, and Daris all start to move towards the outer edge of the bridge, as if in a trance. Falbar, riding in the wagon with Eric, grabs him and he snaps out of it. Father Tarbek does the same for Gracen, while Daris is about to go over the edge when the realization of imminent death shocks him out of his stupor. Lorgan, however, is not so lucky, and soundlessly climbs over the railing to plummet out of sight. Sylman looks over the edge of the bridge to the bottom of the cleft, about 100 feet down. He sees two winged bird-women, harpies: one perched in a dead tree and the other flying above, both singing, with Lorgan's crumpled corpse nearby. Meanwhile, four vultures rise up from under the bridge and attack, injuring Daris and Bruno. Mongo and the other guards concentrate on fighting them off, while Sylman and Bruno shoot at the harpies. Eric joins them after a failed attempt to cast Sleep on the harpies. Giving up on their song, the harpies draw bows and fly upwards to exchange missile fire with the party, climbing and descending to vary the range. Finally Mongo kills one of the vultures, and Sylman, Bruno, and Eric combine their fire to kill one of the harpies; Eric strikes the finishing blow. The remaining guards finish the vultures, but the second harpy descends to seize Lorgan's corpse in its claws and fly off. Mongo hits it with a final long-distance shot from his longbow but it keeps its hold on Lorgan's remains and vanishes into the mist. It starts to snow as the caravan moves off the bridge and reassembles. Eric heals Father Tarbek, who was injured by the vultures. Tarbek leads the group in prayer for the loss of a brother of the faith, but is distraught that the body could not be recovered. The faith's burial ceremony, The Sending, requires the body. Now Lorgan cannot be properly Sent. Alvar is surprised at the attack, as previous caravans have never been attacked by harpies before. The caravan continues up the trail. At the second bridge, they look for signs of foes but everything seems quiet. The bridge is already covered by three or four inches of snow, but they cautiously send the wagons across one at a time, and there are no incidents. The next hour and a half sees the group travel through heavy snow and wind as they continue to ascend. By the time they reach it, the deck of the third bridge is extremely icy. It's decided that Eric will drive each vehicle across alone, one at a time, making his way back across the bridge with the aid of his magic boots. The others will walk across, leading the remaining horses as needed. Both of the wagons get across without incident, but the party's cart starts to slide while partway across, pushing up against the railing. Finally Eric is able to recover and bring it across. Most of the members of the group and the animals make it across safely, but Mongo's horse falls heavily against the guard rail. It starts to thrash wildly, but Eric is able to calm it. Mongo, Sylman, and Eric are able to use a rope tied around a bridge post to bring the horse back to its feet. The animal has been injured by a painful wood splinter from the guard rail, but Eric speaks a Healing Word to it and it is able to make it the rest of the way across the bridge. The caravan travels the last half-hour's distance to the monastery through cold and blowing snow. At first their hearts are gladdened to see the looming stone building ahead of them on the path. But then, with a sinking feeling, they notice that the front doors of the monastery are ajar, and the interior is dark. Has some evil entered this sacred refuge?Sessions
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