Get out of the fridge! And stop chugging the Caesar dressing!
This is better than maynaise! You know what this would go great with? Tiny dried fish!
Whatever. Close the door. How's the adventure - You're still alive, I see.
For now. Never know what's on the horizon, man.
***
We're standing next to the old shrine. At least we know where we are. The snow's still coming down.
Hey Dremont, ya wanna see if your forest spirit will give us a hand here?
So he comes up with some prayer mumbo jumbo, asking for light (I'd ask for heat, but you do you, Dremont).
Thankfully, his prayer worked out, and the spirit appeared, as a blue-tinted elf. They pointed to the old tower, and suddenly it was whole again. We had a safe place to bivy, but the spirit warned us not to stay long. Because reasons.
The place was stocked with a fire and food. We ate our fill, and stuffed our packs. Done with that, we went up to the second floor. A library. More poking around. I sussed out the patterns in a book that could make me levitate. That might be helpful. Dremont said he found a map to a magic warhammer. Hey, as long as its more reliable than your spells...
Oh, there's a third floor. OK. Looks like a star-viewing place. There's a sundial in the middle of the room. But its got three of those pointy vanes instead of just one. There's a couple magic candles sitting around (light, no heat, don't burn out). I take one and play with the sundial. What could be the harm? As I move the light back and forth, we see the view outside the window changing. Snow, no snow... Hmmm. Maybe I should put the candle back.
We rest up and take off the next morning. Dremont suggests we head south to the river, then follow it back east towards Hounds Head. Strangely, when we step outside, there's no snow. OK...
We head south. Happen upon a dead bugbear. Go through his pockets. Opals, nice.
To the river, and east. The rest of the day is uneventful, except the snow kicks in. We make camp, and I use the alarm wand to secure things.
We slog through the snow east. Waist deep on us short folk. I let Dremont break trail. We hear some crashing to the north of us, and someone yelling "Tree, get out of my way!" Of course we check it out. Looks like a giant arguing with a tree. And losing. We leave him be. He's got this handled...
We make it to a homestead that evening. Has the banner of the Yellow Falcons. Doesn't look like it has any horses that need to be healed, so maybe we're good. We knock, two bedraggled adventurers. Big lady answers the door, named Regina. She invites us in out of the weather. There are four other chaps there. Look like mercs that we've met before. They welcome us, hear of our (mis)adventures, catch us up on Hounds Head gossip. Ivanoff's been "off" and moody, Blake's preoccupied with something. Seems like winter's already taking its toll... The Falcons are tired of Scorn politics, and might just stay around here, looking for work come spring.
They'd heard of the fog in Scorn, and Dremont gave them what he knew. Regina mentions that there's a lady with 'forbidden magic' - something like planar travel, laying low in Scorn. She might have some ideas.
We pass the night. I offer an opal for our lodging, but Regina refuses it. Better to have friends. Them's good people.
Finally, we reach Hounds Head.
 |
| via Tim Shorts |
There's some passed out ash elf in the snow outside of the Angry Priest. I stick my fork in him to see if he's done. He revives, shakes off, digs his gear of of the snow, and invites us in. Dude's taller than both of us combined... Lavinia looks him over, decides he's got room for another ale, and let's him in. Serves us some potato stew. Usual crowd, from what I can tell. Locals, a few mooks along the wall looking for work. Blake's over by the fire, staring into it.
The elf asks if we'd be up to go barrow-hunting. Says he knows one close by. We ask if it can wait, but he's in a hurry for some reason. I thought elves had all the time in the world...
Blake heads out, and we follow. Ask him how he's doing, and he absentmindedly says he's under the weather. I can understand that. At least his dog, Red, is still his friendly self.
We're about to turn back to the Angry Priest, when we hear monster growls out from the west. Blake does some hand-waving, and I can tell he's put up some protection around himself.
It never ends around here.
***
No death or dismemberment on our side of the adventure. Tarim and Columbo got back to Scorn, paid a couple of drunks out of the drunk tank, and headed to the local Temple of Possimius. They had some Disney-like interactions with a couple of critters there, talked to some folks. In the end, Columbo made a choice to free himself of Ostun. At a cost, of course. We'll know him as Lefty from here on out...
Oh, and the 'giant' in the woods. I chose not to metagame, but having Tim's "Hunters in Death" zine, I knew we had met Bob-Bob.
Charming, if a bit soft-headed. I think all of the ogres I run in my game have a bit of Bob-Bob in them. After all, Trurok the Ogre has decided that he's discovered that digging holes and trenches is his life's calling, and so sticks around Neuforde as labor.
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