Session Report #2 11/12/2023
This session was a long one they covered a ton of ground and did lots of stuff.
The party consists of 3 PCs Jimbo who is set on doing good, Gwyddion the mendicant monk, and Druisten Chainbreaker along with the 2 thegns Aymeri and the recently freed Brython and the druid Conar who seeks the druids of Albann. Split up at the start of the session they conspire to meet at the village of Wryddembyre to save several children who where petrified in the previous session. Meanwhile Gwyddion rides south from Cernyff carrying with him the Wormskins (don't read this you dickhead players) a series of 5 sets of armor made from the flesh of the Whitethread a beast slain near the city in the recent past.
They arrive in the village without any waylaying and exchange greetings and use the tears of a petrified demon to liberate the children. The towns folk will feast on mutton with the party in celebration and make it clear they are always welcome back.
With enough left over for another batch they also unpetrify a man who was found petrified in the basement bearing a tattoo of a black wheel upon his right hand. Unpetrified he speaks at first in brythonic with a heavy Orleanis accent until he falls silent seeing the druid Conar. He appears fearful of the druid but denies that fear when asked about it.
The party question who he is and he is unwilling to say much outside that he serves the Deathless who is a great teacher for those who serve and that if willing they should follow the river south past Remus as far as south goes and climb the mountains to find him.
With that the party continues north and east leaving this man to wander south seeking his teacher once more.
They then follow the branch in the road east until they found a village in the grass that they spent all of 5 minutes in. This is all the players would say of it.
Uncomfortable they went east until they found the Monestary of St Anfan's which I described as a single stone building surrounded by fields and bee hives. In 11 distinct clusters surrounding this are camped the various nobles who have been outcast here. The players late at night approach and ask for shelter and are granted it. When taken to rest for the night they see the place has large amounts of wealth on display. Namely a almost man tall ivory figure of St. Anfan himself. Druisten, Aymeri and Conar decide to stay outside the monastery due to their druidic markings.
In the morning Gwyddion seeks out the Abbot Tomos and finds him sitting atop a Puddingstone in one of the nearby fields preaching the Sermon on the Mount to what appears to be swarms of honeybees that linger nearby seeming to hang on his very words.
Gwyddion is curious as to what he is doing and inquires to which the abbot replies that he preaches to the many bees that are drawn here by the one interred beneath the Puddingstone a pagan of old days. The bees come for the pagan but Tomos is reluctant to let them be mislead by honeyed words and instead preaches to theses bees about the glory of God. He offers to teach this practice to Gwyddion if he is willing to learn but he says it may be difficult as most men have to much pride in their hearts.
Gwyddion sets himself to learn and is taught that animals can understand men but are usually reluctant to listen as men talk of little but themselves. A man must relinquish his boastful ways in order to speak to animals and have them listen. Gwyddion takes this task to heart and forsakes his boasts (dropping to a 1 HD +2 to hit PC) but gains the humility to speak to animals. She also learns the location of the 6 other pilgrimage sites across the lands that he may seek to learn from.
Having learned this the party then discusses possibly freeing the druid He Beneath the Stone but decide that with a mixed party of druids and christians they can't bring themselves to do it safely. So they ask for guidance to the Moerheb Weald and are told to go east and follow the river there down until they reach the depths of the forest. That is the Moerheb Weald.
Doing so they set out and soon find a bridge across the river. Two squat gargoyles guard each a single end. Built into the bridge the players examine them looking in their mouths they find the tongue serves as a slide back into the throat. Too small for a hand they figure it may be a toll bridge and each place a coin in its mouth hearing it clunk in before crossing the river. On the other side they inspect the other gargoyle and tapping it with a hammer it makes almost a rumbling sound in its echoes they decide not to mess with this toll that has no way to gather the coins.
Farther down the river they find a stone hidden among the vegetation. Engraved with words in ghomish they rely on Conar to translate for them. This is what he reads.
ROADS CAST
AS A NET ACROSS
MOTHER SOIL
DEMANDS TEETH
TO CLEANSE
They dig around and from the direction they came they find that buried under the soil is the remains of an old Roman road. Conar notes he does not know anything of the use of teeth in druidic rites.
They then head south east further and arrive in the town of Diserth and asking around for leads on the town and what is nearby they are sent to see the sorcerer Atiq. Hearing he is a sorcerer Jimbo pulls out a massive fecal plug found while wandering near the lair of Ylmo the Last Bear and asks about it. Atiq is intrigued and will speak to the party about what they want and over the next few minutes will end up trapped in his home by the hold portal spell of Druisten, teach the party that they need hydra teeth to summon and bind the dead in exchange for being taught how to cast that spell, offer to research the bear fecal plug in exchange for a small portion of it.
The party negotiates having him watch their horses while they travel south east in the Weald and that is where we ended the session.
No boasts made. 1 completed.
Jimbo: "I will save these children from the jaws of destruction, especially keeping them from being eaten."