Players and Characters
Evan- Human Circle of the Moon Druid Chatterfang
Jack- Elf Oath of the Ancients Paladin of Solonor Strethwood Tryder
Katya- Human Dragonblood Sorcerer Druka
Sam- Human Oath of Devotion Paladin of the High Lord Urban (Sam took over Nick's paladin; he was going to play a monk, but couldn't make it)
Brittany- Half-elf Way of the Open Hand Monk Tai-Li (Brittany missed the first session)
Summary
(GM's note- TOTALLY stolen from Ben Aaronovitch's book "Foxglove Summer" in his excellent Rivers of London Urban Fantasy series)
The party arrives in the town of Rushpool, and the village is mostly empty. When they enter the Drunken Goblin inn, they find a couple of old men by the fire and the innkeeper. They ask what's going on and he asks if they're sellsword adventurers, then gets a good look at Strethwood and Urban and asks if they're paladins? When Strethwood says yes, the innkeeper says their prayers have been answered, all the village is out searching the woods. Two little girls disappeared from their homes four days ago. The girls took their coats and they think they went out to meet. Their hats were found on the edge of the road going east to the next village and most of the search is going on in that area. The local duke spread word to neighboring towns and sent some troops in to help.
The party decides to help and heads out to the area where the hats were found. The searchers left a flag on the spot and the party searches around. They find a hair tie the searchers overlooked, it has long hairs that might be from one of the girls. There's a game trail leading north and Chatterfang casts Speak with Animals. He talks to a raven and a squirrel and finds out there have been strange creatures in the woods to the north. They follow the game trail to the north.
Along the way, they spot an odd scene; a stump in a clearing holds bowls of food. Druka approaches and sees they're bowls of sweets: honey, apple pie and there are iron leg snares hidden under fresh cut branches. As they examine the traps, an old hunter appears out of the brush, covered in a hunter's cloak and carrying a heavy crossbow with an iron tipped bolt. He tells them he is setting a trap for fey. The searchers told him about the missing girls and he has seen many strange things in the woods. He's seen odd lights at night and found tracks from satyrs and small booted feet. He thinks the fey kidnapped the girls, he's trying to capture one to force it to tell him what happened. He also tells them the sightings seem connected to old stone ruins on a hillside. The party gets directions and finds a bare hill with a circle of collapsed stones on top, like a miniature Stonehenge. There's writing on the stones, similar to old elvish script, Strethwood thinks it's Sylvan; the language of fairies. Druka thinks it's something to do with passage, so the circle may be an old fey portal. They set up nearby and make a hunter's blind to watch from and camp out for the night. But the night passes with no sightings. They decide they need some fairy bait and go back to talk to the hunter. He explains fey like human foods, especially sweets and gives them a jar of blackberry jam. He warns them not to eat any fairy food, that's how they trap you.
When the adventurers return to the hill, it's just after dark. They are getting set up when they hear an immense roar, sounds like a dragon! Urban and Strethwood charge up the hill, with Druka behind them. They find the two girls on top of the hill, but no sign of the dragon. The paladins grab the girls and carry them away, Druka calls out to the dragon in Draconic, but there's no reply and no noise. The girls are dazed and confused, mumbling about being hungry and cold and wanting to go home to their moms. Concerned about fey trickery, Strethwood first uses his Divine Sense then casts Detect Magic. One of the girls, Nicole, radiates magic of the Transmutation type. Strethwood grapples her and punches her in the head! (natural 20!) Urban grabs Hannah and carries her to safety. Nicole struggles to escape and Strethwood punches her again. No child should have been conscious after two mighty blows to the head and Chatterfang approaches and stabs the girl with his dagger. She cries out in a masculine voice and turns into an old satyr with grey hair and beard and one broken horn. They threaten and interrogate the satyr. He says they kidnapped the girls from the hilltop where they were playing in the circle. He's old and can't work well anymore, so his lady said they would keep one of the girls as a replacement servant and he could retire and go back to the girl's family to live off their generosity. He made the dragon noise to attract searchers so they would find the girls.
The party threatens him enough to get his cooperation and he agrees to open the portal again so they can go find the real Nicole. The portal can stay open until the following sunrise. They decide to wait until the next night so they will have the maximum time on the other side.
They take Hannah back to the village and return her and explain they will be able to rescue Nicole that night. Nicole's father wants to come and they have to intimidate him into staying home. They question the satyr some more and find his lady is a minor noble in the Winter court of fey, at least they are not up against Queen Mab or one of the other high fey nobles.
Tai-Li arrives, having been trying to catch up to the party. She joins them as they head out into woods to the portal. After moonrise, the portal opens and they go through into a wintery landscape. Instead of trees, the hill is surrounded by ice spires. Two ogre like beings approach them, but the ogres are wearing armor and carrying swords. Druka calls out to them that want to meet with their lady and convinces the ogres to take them back. They see she is dragonblooded and call her "Fireblood". The ogres escort the party to a giant ice spire. Lights glow within the ices, showing rooms at different levels. At the base of the spire are two pairs of double doors guarded by white haired male snow elves and a large cave like entrance with tracks from very large wolves. The party and their satyr prisoner talk to the guards and they send one guard inside. The guard comes back and escorts them up stairs into a throne room. the rooms inside are carved out the ice of the spire. In the throne wait female snow elf archers and more male guards and the fey noble, Lady Aithlenor, a seven foot tall female snow elf. She speaks with the party and agrees to a deal. She will return the kidnapped girl if they help her. Something has moved into her territory, if they will kill the invader and bring her it's head, she will trade them the girl. The party agrees and they ask questions. The fey believe it is a beast of some kind, a giant multi-legged insect perhaps. The adventurers head back outside. One of the guards gives directions to the area where they have been losing troops. The party heads that way, discussing the possibilities. They think it might be a giant centipede, which means it could be poisonous. Since it is the middle of the night, they decide to make camp and rest. In the morning, Chatterfang memorizes Protection from Poison in case it is a venomous monster. They find the canyon and start finding signs of battle. In one case they find many snow elves slaughtered, some have been torn limb from limb and one was bitten in half, but it's upper body is gone…
They move up the canyon along the frozen stream. Suddenly the ice cracks and a giant centipede rushes them! As it charges, its back spines begin to glow hot. Only Druka and Chatterfang can react, the rest are surprised. Druka shoots it with Chaos Bolt, but gets cold and does no damage. It bites Druka and the creature is so hot that its bite and just being near it cause fire damage. Chatterfang drinks a Potion of Fire Resistance and casts Faerie Fire on the monster. Tai-Li slams it with her staff and punches it as well. The party hits it with attacks, but approaching it harms them. It bites Tai-Li and knocks her out. Druka casts Light to blind it, but it seems to know where they are when they move. Urban slams it hard and it turns and bites him and knocks him out as well. Strethwood throws a javelin with Ensnaring Strike. Chatterfang summons a Healing Spirit to get Tai-Lee and Urban back on their feet. Druka draws the monster's attention with Magic Missile attacks. Urban does a Channel Divinity on his bow and shoots. They finally drop the beast, a young remorhaz that left its nest and was looking for its own territory.
After they rest and heal, the party searches further and finds the monster's lair. They find some more dead fey that the creature had eaten. They find a sword, pouch of Illusion Dust and a horn. Once the body has cooled enough to approach, they take its head and return to Lady Aithlenor's stronghold. She has Nicole waiting for them; she has a snowflake tattoo marking her as a fey servant. When the party present the remorhaz head, she releases Nicole and the tattoo fades. The party takes Nicole and returns her to her home.
Silly Quotes and Smart Remarks
The village seems empty
Evan "Sounds like there's houses to loot"
Jack rolls a 1 for a knowledge roll
Jim "You know nothing Jon Snow"
Katya gets a fantastic stealth roll while Invisible
Jim "You are the breeze" and she's talking about pickpocketing "The wind took my wallet"
Jack's paladin grapples the child who radiates magic and punches "her"
Jack "I'm describing grappling and beating a child"
Trying to get the creature disguised as a child to reveal itself
Sam "I could cast Compelled Duel on a child"
The "child" has taken way more damage than an 11 year old girl could withstand and Strethwood's god hasn't punished him for attacking a child
Katya "We're on the right track; keep beating the child"
The "little girl" reveals itself to be an elderly male satyr and they interrogate him
Evan "I will make you my personal dartboard"
Talking about healing the "child"
Jack "I will not Lay Hands on a child"
Jim "So you're not Catholic?"
Talking about exchanging the satyr back for the missing girl
Sam "We want to re-home him"
Describing the countryside, Brittany wants to know what kind of trees there are and Jim laughs
Jack "I give Brittany a chip for making Jim laugh because you're an arborist"
The magic sword has lightning designs and does thunder damage
Brittany "It's a Thor sword; a thword"
Which led to lots of jokes about "thwinging your thword", etc.
The Horn of Valhalla is a Thor horn, so…
Evan "You take the thword, I'll take the thorn"
