December 10-December 19, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP
After defeating the giants and tracking them back to their lair, the party decided to return to civilization and search for additional magical resources. A shopping delegation left Hemmelmark and passed through Hainburg on the way to the White Tower, a magical research school in the coastal mountains. The party asked for directions from a callow apprentice, and were directed to go around the village and enter through the loading dock behind the tower. The dock was full of specialized facilities for the handling of large magical creatures. The party promised a substantial collection of frost-giant components in exchange for credit toward magical items.
Inside, the party was directed first to meet the academy's headmaster, a scatterbrained gnome who wanted them to test his "dehydrated catapult" (just add water). After realizing that the reconstituted catapult would automatically fire flaming missiles in random directions without anything resembling an off-switch, the party offered to meet him at the glacial rift of the frost giants so that he could test it out himself.
After climbing up the spiral staircase in the center of the tower, the party reached a floor dedicated to elemental magic projects, in search of more practical aid against the giants and their dragon. Here they found a group of graduate student mages working on an experimental design for a Cube of Frost Resistance, which they offered to provide for field testing. ("Just don't overload it.")
Upon returning to Hemmelmark, the party discovered that the villagers were acting very suspicious and shifty, and seemed on the verge of fomenting some kind of rebellion. After a little investigation, they determined that the villagers regarded the town guard as having been cursed or mentally controlled by a coven of ancient witches. The Duke had sent a platoon of soldiers into the woods to deal with them, but none of the soldiers had returned. An old peasant women was more than thrilled to share her ancient lore about the witches, and indicated that the forest could only be passed by those who were "pure and innocent of heart". (Witches love children. They're delicious!) In practical terms, that meant concealing any weapons in a cart underneath a blanket treated with herbs, and also not bringing along anything chaotic. Herrobin and his skeletons were not pure and innocent, and found that the forest actively closed to bar their passage.
The rest of the party passed into the clearly-enchanted forest, along a narrow path. The path led to a series of clearings designed to test the courage and cleverness of any visitors: a set of fountains that promised power if consumed ("uh, no thanks!"), a death's-head tree that shrieked and bit with its cursed head-fruit, and a riddling imp.
At the center of the forest the trail ended in a small cottage dripping with disgustingly honeyed walls. Several placid men in white tunics answered the door, and greeted the party warmly, offering them a taste of the honey and an audience with the good-hearted ladies below. A
charm person spell left them more than willing to share their deep love of their benefactors. The middle of the cottage was an open pit with a staircase descending into an underground cave. There the party encountered the three hags, glamored into their preferred appearances of crone, huntress, and dancer.
A short attempt at parlay erupted into violence when the crone expressed her deep love for the taste of little girls, and offered to share some of the meat from her cooking pot with the guests. The horrified party sprang into action with steel and resolve. The hags dropped their glamors, cackling horribly, and called for their children both natural (three dire trolls) and adopted (little boys cursed into ghouls). The four honey-addled consorts shook off the fresher enchantment and rushed to the defense of their beloved ladies.
The fight was fierce and dreadful, and at several moments the party seemed on the verge of victory. The hags had bound their souls to the troll-children with runestones, and would not suffer the effects of damage until the trolls themselves had fallen. The ghoul-children rushed about in the back of the party, paralyzing spellcasters. A
silence spell caught the eldest crone, but this merely turned her into a frenzied flurry of horrid claws.
When the last member of the party (Robin Silverfall) finally went down, the slain trolls slowly regenerated their damage and happily feasted on the scattered bones of their foes, siblings, and mothers alike. Fortunately the hags themselves did not recover, and with the spells enchanting the forest broken, Herrobin's skeleton army was able to arrive and rip them apart in the middle of their after-dinner naps.
Roster
- Zelmar Krackiss, 5th-level fright knight
- Anatolia, 4th-level bladedancer
- Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin
- Viserion, young white dragon
- Sir Robin Silverfall, 5th-level spellsword
- Herrobin, 5th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
- Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
- Zhalgesh, not entirely sure, ask Jacob
- Was Will here? What did he play? Help!
=> The number of survivors is uncertain, need to wait until we roll Tampering with Mortality
Not appearing in this adventure:
- The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
- Anatolia, maybe? I don't think she was in the final battle, at least
- Thorvald, 5th level spy
- Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan
Casualties
Everyone got eaten by dire trolls in a horrible TPK, except for Herrobin (who loves his skeletons too much to ever leave them) and Frigodria
Treasure
During the weeks of bed rest after r
estore life and limb, the party will have plenty of time to hire a sage to analyze the substantial hoard of the three sisters:
- 3 crates of armor and weapons, worth 225 gp each and weighing 10 stone each,
- 1 crates of giant weasel parts, worth 300 gp each and weighing 5 stone each,
- 2000 electrum pieces [1000 gp],
- 4000 GP facet cut imperial topaz,
- 2000 GP crystal geode,
- 500 GP aquamarine,
- 500 GP alexandrite,
- Oil of Slipperiness,
- 2x Oil of Heroism,
- Oil of Invulnerability,
- Oil of Animal Control,
- Arcane scroll with the following spells: Detect Magic,
- Arcane scroll with the following spell: Summon Hero,
- A scroll of Ward against Magic,
- A scroll of Ward against Undead,
- Sword +1, +3 vs Regenerating Monsters,
- Sword +1, Light 30' radius,
- Sword -1, Cursed,
- Axe +,
- Suit of Leather armor +1,
- Bolt case containing 1 crossbow bolts +2,
- Bolt case containing 7 crossbow bolts +1,
- Staff of Healing with 27 charges,
- Wand of Detecting Enemies with 7 charges,
- Staff of the Serpent,
- Rope of Climbing,
- ... and a Horn of Blasting bearing the House Zaiser coat of arms (2d6 sonic damage and deafened for 2d6 turns, 100' x 20' cone, usable once per turn). The Duke might be interested in this.
The party also found maps leading to treasure chests full of gold (18,000 gp and 15,000 gp), buried under each of the clearings they had previous visited. Herrobin's skeletons returned them to Hemmelmark along with the other treasure.
The total value of this hoard (excluding any magic) is 41,975 gp and its total weight is 70 stone.
Total gold per member: 6996 gp
Experience
Killed: 3 hags (Gentle Mother, the Lady of Grace, and Zephyr) [3x3100=9300], 1 8th-level fighter consort-thrall [1100], 2 7th-level fighter consort-thralls [2x790=1580], 1 9th-level mage consort-thrall [1700], 3 dire trolls [3x1300=3900], 12 ghoul children [12x29=348]
Total: 17,928 xp
Total experience from treasure: 41,975 xp
Total experience from kills: 17,928 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 59903 xp
Total experience per member: 9984 xp
