Campaign: Krevborna Open Table (5e D&D, Google Hangouts)
Characters: Kylic (half-elf life domain cleric), Thane Ganymede (darakhul wizard), Roland da Cernia (high elf arcane trickster rogue), Leonid Vok (weretouched monster slayer fighter)
Objective: Reassemble the glass item retrieved from a Grail Tomb last session, and learn its purpose.
Events: Kylic sent the shards of magical broken glass the party had uncovered to his friend, the scientific warlock Tobias Rune. Unfortunately, Rune could not make heads or tails of the item--save that it was magical in some way. However, when Rune sent the glass pieces back to Kylic he also enclosed a note saying that a Polnezna clan called the Borgavs were famed for their glass-blowing, and thus might be able to help unite the shards so it could be studied in its intended form.
After recruiting Rune's messenger (the aristocratic Roland da Cernia) and reconvening the party from the last adventure by way of fraudulent party invitations, Kylic, Thane, Roland, and Leonid set off for the village greens outside of Sabra where the Borgav clan was currently camped on the village green. The camp was comprised of seven house wagons painted in bright colors, circled around a large, blazing campfire. About two-dozen people were clustered around the fire, singing, dancing, and playing fiddles, squeezebox, and hand drums; they were dressed in colorful patchwork clothing and many were armed with short swords or hand axes at their belts. Four brown bears were chained to wagons.
A weathered man in his late forties, wearing a sky blue headscarf, approached the party--the rest of the Polezna parted deferentially to let him pass. He invited the group to share his clan's food and fire. Under the pretense of wanting to purchase a squeezebox, Kylic began to make inroads into getting Eli to trust him. Once a squeezebox had traded hands, Kylic impressed the Borgavs by playing a jaunty, yet disturbing tune; the Polnezna clapped and stamped their feet to his song. The party was offered a spicy rabbit stew served out of glass bowls.
As the night's entertainments continued, Thane was asked to dance by a young woman of the Borgav clan. It was quite a sight to see a monstrous alchemist with a ghoulish heritage dancing with a beautiful young woman, but somehow Thane managed to keep up with the skilled dancer--even though the tempo of the music played by the Borgav musicians kept increasing until it reached a fevered pitch. At the close of the dance, the assembled crowd gave a great cheer; the men of the clan clapped Thane on the back and gripped his hand in welcome, Aneeshka, the dancing girl, stole a kiss from Thane before scampering away.
Partaking so avidly in the clan's traditions had sealed an unspoken level of trust extended toward the group. Eli drew the group aside at the end of the evening and explained that his son, Donya, was engaged to Lelianne of the Varlik clan, who were camped three hours away by the trade road, to seal an alliance between the two families. There were rumors that an exile, a handsome black-haired youth named Hans, had been following the Varliks because he was in love with Lelianne.
A weathered man in his late forties, wearing a sky blue headscarf, approached the party--the rest of the Polezna parted deferentially to let him pass. He invited the group to share his clan's food and fire. Under the pretense of wanting to purchase a squeezebox, Kylic began to make inroads into getting Eli to trust him. Once a squeezebox had traded hands, Kylic impressed the Borgavs by playing a jaunty, yet disturbing tune; the Polnezna clapped and stamped their feet to his song. The party was offered a spicy rabbit stew served out of glass bowls.
As the night's entertainments continued, Thane was asked to dance by a young woman of the Borgav clan. It was quite a sight to see a monstrous alchemist with a ghoulish heritage dancing with a beautiful young woman, but somehow Thane managed to keep up with the skilled dancer--even though the tempo of the music played by the Borgav musicians kept increasing until it reached a fevered pitch. At the close of the dance, the assembled crowd gave a great cheer; the men of the clan clapped Thane on the back and gripped his hand in welcome, Aneeshka, the dancing girl, stole a kiss from Thane before scampering away.
Partaking so avidly in the clan's traditions had sealed an unspoken level of trust extended toward the group. Eli drew the group aside at the end of the evening and explained that his son, Donya, was engaged to Lelianne of the Varlik clan, who were camped three hours away by the trade road, to seal an alliance between the two families. There were rumors that an exile, a handsome black-haired youth named Hans, had been following the Varliks because he was in love with Lelianne.
Donya was worried that Lelianne’s affections had been swayed by Hans, and also concerned that Hans may become desperate and hurt or kidnap Lelianne. Since the Borgravs were forbidden by custom to approach the Varlik camp before the wedding day, they were willing to pay the party in gold coin and repair the glass object if they delivered a gift to Lelianne (an ornate iron and paper fan), ascertained the current state of her heart, and (possibly) drive off Hans. Donya was particularly receptive to Leonid's idea that perhaps Hans should be castrated.
In the morning, the party set off for the Varlik camp, which was three hours away along the trade road. The camp consisted of six house wagons, but where the Borgav's wagons were painted in garish colors, these wagons were painted in dull browns and greens. There were a dozen people working around the small campfire, polishing shields and fixing wheels, who eyed the party suspiciously as they approached. Kylic played a Polnezna song he had learned the previous night to signal their fellowship as the party made their way to the Varlik camp.
The group talked to Aydem, a scarred man in his early forties with powerfully muscled arms from his years before the anvil, and Grandmother Tazhlia, a gray-haired women missing most of her teeth. Aydem was curt and made it clear that he wished for the party to conclude their business quickly and leave his camp--he was clearly agitated about something. He also let slip two interesting tidbits: the party should tell him no lies, as Tazhlia had the Sight and would see right through them, and that there was another non-Polenzna within the camp at the moment.
Aydem refers to Lelianne and her twin sister Patreesa as the family's "treasures" because they are beautiful and can be used to help cement alliances with other clans. They are also gifted with the Sight. Unfortunately, the door to the sisters’ wagon was discovered hanging open yesterday, and both were gone. Aydem blamed their disappearance on "that whore’s son Hans," who had been lurking at the outskirts of the camp but was now nowhere to be found. It seemed obvious to Aydem that Hans forced the sisters to leave with him.
In the morning, the party set off for the Varlik camp, which was three hours away along the trade road. The camp consisted of six house wagons, but where the Borgav's wagons were painted in garish colors, these wagons were painted in dull browns and greens. There were a dozen people working around the small campfire, polishing shields and fixing wheels, who eyed the party suspiciously as they approached. Kylic played a Polnezna song he had learned the previous night to signal their fellowship as the party made their way to the Varlik camp.
The group talked to Aydem, a scarred man in his early forties with powerfully muscled arms from his years before the anvil, and Grandmother Tazhlia, a gray-haired women missing most of her teeth. Aydem was curt and made it clear that he wished for the party to conclude their business quickly and leave his camp--he was clearly agitated about something. He also let slip two interesting tidbits: the party should tell him no lies, as Tazhlia had the Sight and would see right through them, and that there was another non-Polenzna within the camp at the moment.
Aydem refers to Lelianne and her twin sister Patreesa as the family's "treasures" because they are beautiful and can be used to help cement alliances with other clans. They are also gifted with the Sight. Unfortunately, the door to the sisters’ wagon was discovered hanging open yesterday, and both were gone. Aydem blamed their disappearance on "that whore’s son Hans," who had been lurking at the outskirts of the camp but was now nowhere to be found. It seemed obvious to Aydem that Hans forced the sisters to leave with him.
Thane attempted to detect magic, but nothing seemed noteworthy inside; more importantly, he found a layer of dark, earthy soil under the blankets on each bunk. Leonid found a piece of clothing worn by one of the girls he could use to track them with while in wolf form. Grandmother Tazhlia entered the wagon while Thane and Leonid were having a look around. She told them that a few eager youths had followed tracks into the woods, but without result. Tazhlia insinuated that she believed that the girls could still be found if someone went after them, but clearly Aydem had given up that hope.
Before taking any further actions, the party decided to ascertain the identity of the non-Polnezna in the camp. Knocking upon the lone tent revealed that its occupant was the mind-enslaving artist, Pietra Donna Sangino, whom Leonid and Thane had tangled with before. Due to the powerful blow Marek had inflicted on her with his greatsword, she now had a livid scar running the length of her face. Sangino assumed that the party had tracked her to the camp to kill her; the party assumed that she may have had something to do with the girls' disappearances. She claimed to be there merely to paint the occasion of the wedding ceremony; she was shaken by the appearance of adventurers she had fled from, but seemed to be telling the truth. When questioned about the portrait she had painted of the Master found in the pirate cave, she admitted that she had been hired to paint him--and also that he was the most terrifying being she had ever encountered.
Sensing that something was amiss with what they had learned thus far, the party ventured into the deep of the pine forest in search of Hans, Patreesa, and Lelianne. In wolf form, Leonid easily caught their sent and gave chase. After a few hours of tracking, the party happened upon two women with pale blonde hair--one in a riding outfit bearing two swords, the other in a frilly bonnet and dress. The woman with the swords warned the adventurers that the forest was home to a monstrous beast they had been tracking for days and that the forest was unsafe. The two groups parted ways.
An hour later, the party found the beast the women had been stalking: it was a monstrous, shaggy thing with an ursine body and a head erupting with plates of bone and curved horns. Kylic took up a defensive posture, Roland hid behind a tree stump, and Thane cast a spell that rendered him invisible...which left Leonid the obvious target of the thing's bloodthirsty anger as it charged through the woods toward the party's position. The thing grabbed Leonid in one paw, slashing him and attempting to pound his body into the forest floor. Roland landed bolt after bolt into its hide, dealing significant damage and fading back into cover where the beast could not find him. Kylic bashed at it with his mace. In the end, Leonid leaped free of the beast's grasp and tore out its throat before landing on his paws.
After this violent interlude, Leonid again picked up the scent and the party returned to the hunt. Their destination circle of thin, curved standing stones in a clearing. In the center of the circle was a hole with stone steps leading down into the darkness. The steps were rimed with frost, even though it was currently summer. Down they went, into a pagan burial chamber. The air was thick with piney resin; two corpses preserved in a brown-black substance lay upon wooden biers. A third bier stood empty, one corner was occupied by old chariot wheels, and a passage flanked by stone statues led to a long hallway.
The hallway was engraved with images of three goddess-like figures--sometimes arranged so that the tripartite heads occupied the neck of a single figure--being offered sacrifices by human figures clad in furs. The hallway ended in three doors. The party chose to enter the door on the left, which unveiled a mystifying seen. In the center of the room was a coffin-sized block of ice, on top of which was the squirming figure of a dark-haired Polnezna man who was held fast by four hands of ice that emerged from the block's surface. Within the block was what appeared to be another human-shaped figure. Standing next to the block were two identical, slim women in the dour clothes of the Varlik clan. They were smiling ominously.
Those ominous smiles turned even more sinister as both sisters untied the velvet bands at their necks; their bodies slumped to the floor like rag dolls, but their heads floated in the air...trailing lungs, viscera, and writhing intestines beneath them! The sisters' heads swooped at the party, their entrails dripping with corrosive acid. Leonid tackled the two penanggalans head on with sword and axe; his flesh sizzled as grasping tendrils of viscera bludgeoned him, but he was dealing horrific damage in return. Thane and Roland tried to damage the ice block with fire and crossbow bolt, but the ice was resilient. Roland switched to his short sword to fend off the penanggalan that swooped at him.
Leonid continued to hold his own, hacking away at the entrails of the penanggalan assaulting him. Kylic grabbed a penanggalan by the hair and attempted to destroy it with a necromantic spell, but the energy dissipated harmlessly across its skin. The sister Roland was fighting got the best of him, the pain of its bite rendered him unconscious. The tide was turning against the party, so Kylic rebuked the undead, sending one of the penanggalans to cower in the corner of the room; Kylic grabbed Roland and dragged him out of the room. Leonid and Thane followed suit, exiting the chamber and retreating to safety. As they left, they could hear Hans's anguished cries as he was pulled into the block of ice, followed by the fiendish laughter of the two sisters.
Kylic used his magic to stabilize Roland, and the party made a swift exit of the burial chamber. Thane decided to cast an invisibility spell on himself and return to loot the unexplored rooms in the ancient dungeon...alone. As he crept past the penanggalans under the cover of invisibility he had a moment of terrible realization: they could see him. Their attack left him dying on the cold stone floor.
As his body died, Thane found himself in the a dark room facing a ghoul dressed in lordly attire upon a throne. The enthroned creature remarked that it was a pity that Thane's aspirations toward power and a noble title had gone unfulfilled. The room then expanded into a ballroom in which richly-attired people danced and feasted. Thane was being enticed with all the things that could be his, if only he lived. The enthroned man then asked Thane to take his hand and live to see those ambitions through. Thane clasped the stranger's hand and found himself healed and running away from the penanggalans toward the burial chambers' stairs.
The party reported the strange fate of the sisters to the Varlik clan, who immediately began to pull up stakes and move on from the cursed spot. The party also informed the Borgav clan of what had happened; the Borgavs were much more sorrowful than the Varliks had been over what had transpired. Kylic returned the fan to them, and in return they gave him a repaired item made from the glass shards he had brought: in its complete form it was a glass lens that resembled a human eye with a blue iris. Back in Piskaro, Kylic sent the lens to Tobias and then boarded a ship to parts unknown.
XP: 569 each.
Loot: Empty handed!
Transformations: Thane's right hand and forearm are crossed with a network of jagged, recently-healed wounds that appear from wrist to elbow. He's made a pact with...something.
