Session Report #11
I burnt out on this campaign and failed to keep up on these blog posts after nearly 2 years of us playing in the Reavers campaign. I waited long enough on these I don't have a clear memory of what happened so I asked my player Ragga if I could use their journal entries they wrote. They said yes so here is Ragga's journal entries.
Yelwyck makes preparations to successfully rear a captured Griffon for the Queen.
We agree that we should pursue Gwyndolinâs stolen ship. Having good word on its whereabouts we head north along the coast.
Following the curving road, we spot a village. Silence and the smell of rot reigns here. The doors are marked with a red X and we find bodies in the huts wrapped in white cloth; the cloth is stained red at the eyes and mouth. This village mustâve fallen victim to a plague and we decide to burn it to the ground.
We continue north and come upon an inhabited village in the shadow of mountains to the east. We meet with a tongueless villager, cold and harsh in demeanor. He points us to a path. We follow the path and come upon the temple-dwelling of a mystic or monster. Who knows the difference in these lands? Here, we find a foreboding twisted tree with hundreds of tongues nailed to it, yellow skulls stacked 4 high (the skulls have no teeth). We surmise that this is a place of evil and death and we will come to know our mortality intimately if we make ourselves known here. We head back to the village and Gwyndolin notes that she will, one day, return to burn this village to the ground.
We carry on north and happen upon an abandoned village. The doors of the homes are painted black (we reason that the Pictish peoples use black as the colour of mourning). The village is empty: no corpses, locks broken, houses ransacked, and overgrownâperhaps at the hands of some force of looting and pillaging. We carry on northwest. We see a finger of land with a keep that sits upon it and a boat (perhaps the boat we seek)! We approach the guards and ask for shelter. We are granted shelter. We treat with the countâa man seated on a throne cut of stone, armed with a 2-handed sword, with a look of exhaustion beyond anything weâve seen before. Gwyndolin tells the count that she means to claim her boat from Thorfin and Thorstein. Count Drest says he will not abide by violence in his keep. He goes on to speak of his troubles, he says that he and his people have had no nightly rest, persecuted in their dreams. He says that the source of these nightmares can be found on a nearby island and if we were able to give him and his people the solace of sleep, weâd have his good favour to claim the boat. Dredd boasts, âCount Drest, I shall put an end to the dreams that keep you from rest.â
We set off west on a longboat, looking towards a crumbling tower on an island. The countâs man calls this the Land of the Sleeper. We arrive. Gwyndolin and Yelwyck collect mushrooms as we scout outside the tower.
We enter the crumbling tower. The 1st floor is empty. We struggle to get to the 2nd floor. Here, we find a large man holding a massive sword, tottering, muttering in a strange language, eyes almost closed, unfocused, tattoos of blue swirls, unkempt, his beard hangs to his stomach, matted hair.
We call out to him and his muttering gets louder, otherwise heâs unresponsive.
Yelwyck thinks the man must be on the wildest mushroom trip. Yelwyck eats a mushroom to commune with the man and instantly loses consciousness. One man down. We lower Yelwyck out of the tower by rope so that he may be safe if things go awry when we deal with The Sleeper. We explore the top floor and find an armoury with rusted weapons and an oak chest. In it, we find 500 silver pieces, a black velvet bag (few inches long), a dozen silver nails and a matching silver hammer with eyes that âwatch in all directionsâ.
Gwyndolin and Dredd think on how to kill The Sleeper without putting themselves in front of The Sleeperâs sword. We fill a chest with heavy rocks, tie a rope to it, fashion a noose around the other end, and gently slip it around The Sleeperâs neck.
We toss the chest out the window. The Sleeper is dragged to the wall, the wall gives out, The Sleeper tumbles out, and we hear a crack on the ground.
Yelwyck instantly awakens and realizes that The Sleeperâs head is smeared across the ground.
Yelwyck tells us of his dream-world-mushroom-trip. He found himself in a field, there was an open door, he enters, he sees The Sleeper sitting and eating, The Sleeper says heâs here to teach, to teach how to fight, to teach âthe dreamerâs wayâ. In this dream world, Yelwyck trains under the guidance of The Sleeper.
Upset that we killed his swordmaster, he takes The Sleeper sword as his own.
Morning arrives and a ship takes us back to the keep. We find Count Drest, smiling, and ask him how last nightâs sleep fared. He says, âWithout a dream.â
With the countâs favour, we look forward to reclaiming Gwyndolinâs boat!