Arcade’s Journal, covering part of the Winter’s Glade Adventure. After leaving the tasloi, we traveled through the forest for a few days before meeting a wood elf named Sulfanas. Wonderful experience. There are so few elves in Rampart. (Nolin snarled and was as unpleasant as possible the whole time.) Sulfanas told us that a Lady of the Wood was somehow involved in the mystery of the glade.... ...found the entrance to a series of underground chambers inside a cave within the glade. Appears to have been a temple of some kind. It’s freezing. The floors are covered with ice.... ...discovered the diary of a half-elf named Raind. He describes the steady decline in temperament of Sollers Vestius, the elven mage who had employed him. Vestius became moody, and began committing evil acts. Raind seems to say that Vestius turned to the worship of Imbindarla. Cult was thought to have been eradicated centuries ago, after the sack of a temple of Eris (Goddess of Healing). The last entries are dated Toraz 12, 230 years ago.... ...there are frozen skeletons everywhere.... ...a riddle carved into the wall near the trap door. “Spear of magic Summer’s bane Friend of snow but Son of rain Pointing down or plunging deep In Winter’s Heart life’s blood will seep I fought the fiends, the wood’s half-men I tried to grow above my ken I failed somewhat, I have been cursed To end my pain, a hardened thirst I challenge all to walk this way Your lives will pass Your bones will stay.” The descent awaits us.... |
AnnotationsIt was en route to this adventure that the PCs are ambushed by the bard/confidence man "Fallane Deepleaf." Up in a tree, Fallane introduces himself grandly and demands the PCs' money. They refuse, Grundo hits him with a thrown warhammer, and in a fit of pique Fallane casts sleep on all of them. No save... Whump! Every single PC falls asleep except for Maddoc. Fallane demands that Maddoc drop his sword, Maddoc refuses and takes a swing - and fumbles horribly, throwing his own sword into the nearby river. While Maddoc dives into the river to look for it, Fallane merrily proceeds to loot everyone except for Nolin, who unbeknownst to me happens to be carrying most of the party's cash at the time. It would be a beautiful in-game explanation to say that way back then I already knew "Fallane" (Eritain) was actually Nolin's half-brother. It'd also be a lie! The truth is that I thought I had asked everyone how much money they had, and I simply missed KidCthulhu - so Nolin never got robbed. It made a nice plot hook, though, so we ran with it. Fallane was my first repeating NPC, never hurting the PCs but always making life interesting for them. Lots of fun, and it gave the group someone to really hate. "The Winter's Glade" was also a Dungeon adventure, one which I modified a bit. I remember undead satyrs attacking the group, and a nice sense of loss as the elf fell under a curse. This was a good adventure; you'll like the denouement. Interesting; I abandoned my unique month/day names ages ago. How'd the name for a month end up as the name for my God of Murder?!? I never noticed that before. - Piratecat |